The Gundam Mummy
by Lady Koneko Shin-Chan
Summary: On a mission, the Gundam pilots face the horrifying realization that legends an myths can become a deadly reality as they rush to save the world from a three thousand plus year curse. PG-13 for gore, shounen ai, and lime content.
1. Introduction - The Curse

The Gundam Mummy - Prologue

>     Hello minna, welcome to my first movie crossover. For those who are curious, this little story is three chapters long, with a prologue, epilogue and author's notes at the very end. Currently the prologue (currently posted) and two chapters have been written, with the third hopefully going to be finished by the year's end. If you have seen the movie, the prologue shall sound very familiar, but it had to be done this way to set the story up correctly. The Gundam boys shall be showing up in the next chapter, don't worry. Now, on with the story! 
> 
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    Disclaimer - Gundam Wing and all characters associated with it belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency. The Mummy and all characters associated with it belong to Universal pictures. Sefic and any characters not belonging to Gundam Wing and The Mummy belong to the author, Lady Koneko. And last, but not least, Brendan Fraser belongs to Brendan Fraser. *mournful sigh*   
  
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The Gundam Mummy   
a 'Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing' story   
Prologue: Introduction - The Curse   
by Lady Koneko   
  

> 
> Thebes - 1290 BC   
  

> 
> {_The scene opens upon one of the pyramids being bathed in the golden light of the afternoon sun. The focus shifts, now upon the striking visage of the Sphinx, once again getting a face-lift, to the busy streets full of people. On one busy street, peasants bow before a racing chariot with a single rider. A low, soft soprano voice starts narrating._} 
> 
>     "Thebes... City of the Living. Crown jewel of Pharaoh Seti the First." 
> 
> {_We now see a well built, bald but handsome man looking out of a balcony onto the city. Behind him streaks of light still shines on the taller of the buildings and monuments._} 
> 
>     "Home of Imhotep, Pharaoh's high priest." 
> 
> {_A lovely young woman, full figured and wearing nothing but a scanty loincloth and some very artistically done body paint enters the room._} 
> 
>     "Birthplace of Anck-su-namun, Pharaoh's mistress. No man was allowed to touch her." 
> 
> {_Anck-su-namun walks across the room, heading to the alcove that Imhotep is waiting in. Imhotep's priests watch, worried looks on their faces, and quickly go to the massive doors to shut them._} 
> 
>     "But for their love, they were willing to risk life itself." 
> 
> {_The narrator sounds a bit sad. Imhotep and Anck-su-namun gently greet each other; then passionately kiss. Imhotep rubs his hands possessively over her arms, smearing the dark paint. So caught up in each other, neither notice. Meanwhile at the door, the priests were just about to lock the door, when Pharaoh bursts into the room. He looks at the assorted Priests of Osiris, and demands to know why they were here, in Anck-su-namun's house. He storms to the alcove, and the priests watch in mute silence. Once there, Seti confronts Anck-su-namun, now alone, and sees the no longer perfect paint on her arm. He demands to know who touched her. She looks at her arm in surprise, then smiles and looks behind him. Imhotep steps into view, and Seti turns to him, realization finally dawning on him of what has been going on behind his back. It is a bit too late, though, as Anck-su-namun pulls out a Hittite dagger and plunges it into his back. Imhotep unsheathes a short sword, and joins his lover in the killing of the Pharaoh. Shocked by what they were seeing, the priests rush to close and bolt the door. It is too late. Pharaoh's bodyguards, the feared Med-jai, had finally arrived. They burst into the room, as menacing as hired killers with a mission could only be. Imhotep and Anck-su-namun have a quick reality check, gaze down upon the slain body of the Pharaoh between them and realize they are in deep trouble. Anck-su-namun commands her love to leave, to save himself. Imhotep refuses to leave her, but the priests haul him away. When Pharaoh's bodyguards enter the alcove, they see Pharaoh's blood-covered corpse on the ground, and Anck-su-namun standing triumphantly over it. She defiantly declares that her body is no longer his temple, and plunges her dagger into her stomach. Imhotep watches the shadow on the wall, and cringes. Time passes, and a chariot races through the cold night of the desert._} 
> 
>     "To resurrect Anck-su-namun, Imhotep and his priests broke into her crypt and stole her body. They raced deep into the desert, taking Anck-su-namun's body to Hamanaptra, City of the Dead, ancient burial site for the sons of Pharaohs and the resting place of the wealth of Egypt." 
> 
> {_The chariot enters a deserted city, lit only by a few torches. Watching over the city are massive statues of Anubis and Horus, sons of Osiris, guardians of the dead. The view changes, and we now see Imhotep walking down a flight of stairs, a heavy black book in his arms, and his priests following devoutly behind him. The narrator starts speaking again, this time sounding scornful._} 
> 
>     "For his love, Imhotep dared the Gods anger by going deep into the city, where he took _The Black Book of the Dead_ from its holy resting place." 
> 
> {_The body of Anck-su-namun, divested of her burial wrappings, lies on a dark stone pyre, five jars resting next to her. Imhotep's priests surround her, chanting. Imhotep steps into the circle they form, and opens the book. Finding the spell, he starts to speak._} 
> 
>     "Anck-su-namun's soul had been sent to the dark underworld, her vital organs removed and placed into five sacred canopic jars." 
> 
> {_Not far away from the stone pyre, a pool of black sludge-like liquid starts to roll and burble. A shadowy form rises from it and approaches the pyre. While Imhotep recites the spell, the black shadow enters Anck-su-namun's body. From one of the sacred canopic jars came a faint, rymathic drumming throb as Anck-su-namun's heart started to beat. On the pyre, she opens her eyes and gasps for breath._} 
> 
>     "Anck-su-namun's soul had come back." 
> 
> {_Imhotep raises his ceremonial dagger to complete the rite, to carve open Anck-su-namun's body and replace the vital organs now resting in the jars around her, but a score of armed men rushed Imhotep. One of them grabs Imhotep's arm, restraining him. Another breaks the canopic jar containing Anck-su-namun's heart, crushing the organ within. She stiffens._} 
> 
>     "But Pharaoh's bodyguards had followed Imhotep and stopped him before the ritual could be completed." 
> 
> {_As all watch, the black shadow rises from Anck-su-namun's body, and with a shrill screech, dives into the black pool. The scene shifts, and we are now in a preparation room. The narrator has a slight smug sound in her voice._} 
> 
>     "Imhotep's priests were condemned to be mummified alive." 
> 
> {_The priests are tied to pillars as their intestines are carved out, eyes bored out, and brains scrambled by jackal-headed priests of Anubis. Imhotep is a silent witness to the suffering of his devoted followers. The narrator starts speaking again, a scornful note in her voice. But this time, it is directed at Pharaoh's bodyguards, at the punishment they were about to mete out to the High Priest of Osiris, and not at Imhotep as before._} 
> 
> "As for Imhotep, he was condemned to endure the Hom-dai, the most horrible of ancient curses, one so horrible, it had never before been bestowed." 
> 
> {_We watch as Imhotep's tongue is cut off. He is then wrapped, and placed into a plain wooden coffin. A priest of Anubis approaches, a large pottery jar being held over his shoulder. He stops before Imhotep, and then dumps the contents over him. Icky black things scurry over him, and Imhotep attempts to scream. The coffin is closed; then locked. It is then placed into a granite sarcophagus, which is also locked._} 
> 
>     "He was to remain sealed inside his sarcophagus, the undead, for all eternity." 
> 
> {_The huge stone sarcophagus is lowered into a pit, and the Med-jai start to shovel sand over it. The narrator's voice grows vibrant._} 
> 
>     "The Med-jai would never allow him to be released, for he would arise a walking disease. A plague upon mankind. An unholy flesh eater with the strength of ages. Power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility!" 
> 
> {_Wide shot of the Mai Jai burring Imhotep, and we see that he is being buried underneath the statue of Anubis, which seems to have a stern look on its stone face._}   
  
  
Hamanaptra - 1923 AD   
  

> 
> {_French Foreign Legionnaires scurry over weathered remains of the sun baked Hamanaptra in some sort of panic._} 
> 
>     "For over three thousand years, men and armies fought over this land, never knowing what evil laid beneath it." 
> 
> {_The Legionnaires are preparing for battle. In the distance, a tribe of Tuaregs warriors head for Hamanaptra. Upon a cliff overlooking the City of the Dead is a small group of men wearing black with tattoos upon their faces._} 
> 
>     "And for over three thousand years, the Mai-jai, the decedents of Pharaoh's sacred bodyguards have watched and guarded the city." 
> 
> {_We focus on two men. One of them is a rather seedy, weaselish-looking man who you wouldn't trust to clean your shoes, let alone watch your back. The other is a tall man, with big blue eyes and dishwater blond hair who gives off the aura of a boy scout for some reason. While everyone else is dressed as legionnaires, he is wearing a tan waistcoat and has two bandoleers strapped around his chest. As the Tuaregs come closer, the small, weasel-like man, whose name is Beni Gabor, breaks and bolts into the city, looking for cover. The other man, a Rick O'Connell, give him a weary, accepting look and sites down his riffle. The Tuaregs reach the City of the Dead, yelling war cries._} 
> 
> {_A battle ensues, but it is a hopeless battle for the Legionnaires, outnumbered ten to one. Rick uses his rifle until the Tuaregs are too close; then pulls several off of their horses. Now that the Tuaregs were on top of them, he pulled out two pistols and shoots until he is out of bullets. He pulls out two more and does the same. Once he is completely out of bullets, he turns and runs into Hamunaptra. He sees Beni enter a building, and runs to him, calling for him to wait. Beni, being the caring individual that he is, closes the door on him. Several Tuaregs race after Rick as he runs through the ruins, until he comes to a stop at a half buried statue in the sand. He turns and faces the Tuaregs defiantly. The Tuaregs site down on Rick, but their horses become spooked. Instead of fighting their horses, the Tuaregs wheel around and race off, leaving a confused Rick behind them. He turns, and sees that the stature is that of a man with a jackal's head. For some reason he cannot place his finger on; Rick is seriously disturbed._} 
> 
> {_Before he can gather his wits and wonder what the heck is going on, the sand shifts before him. He turns, and then the sand rips into great gouges, carving an image in the sand. Rick doesn't care, more intent on getting the heck out of there and away from the feeling of overwhelming menace and evil that arrived with the flying sand. He falls, and his hand touches a cool, metallic object that had been turned up in the sand. He grabs it and gets to his feet, shoving the object, a gold puzzle box, into his tan waistcoat, and makes for the desert. The sand stills, having formed the visage of a screaming face. Rick does not notice, and the Med-jai cannot see. The Med-jai watch passively as Rick wanders into the desert, swearing never to return._}   
  
  
Hamanaptra - 195 AC   
  

> 
> {_A wide shot of Hamanaptra in the cool morning hours. A roar of vehicles and a rooster tail of sand are heading toward Hamanaptra. Upon the cliff where the Med-jai has always watched, now stands a lone figure wrapped in a swath of white cloth. Though totally covered by the brilliant white cloth, one can still tell that the figure has a feminine form._} 
> 
>     "And for all these thousands of years, others had watched over The City of the Dead, silently, unable to intervene, patently waiting for the time when they could act." 
> 
> {_The focus is once again upon Hamanaptra, where three large trucks come to a stop. A score of men dressed in Oz uniforms climb out and set about setting up camp. Four other men also climb out of the trucks, three of American descent and one of Egyptian. They look at the ruins; then start to talk amongst themselves. During the discussion, one takes out a small gold object and looks at it. Behind them, a weaselish-looking man of Hungarian descent has climbed out of the truck and looks at the city with a mixture of foreboding and greed. Up on the cliff two men wrapped in dark cloth have joined the figure in white. Though the female figure is completely covered, the two men are not, and we can see that both are well-tanned, handsome individuals. Around the neck of one is an Amulet of Anubis, around the other an Amulet of Horus._} 
> 
>     "For there is that under the sand that cannot be looked upon by mortal man again, lest the world be taken by darkness, the sun never to shine again!" 
> 
> {_A dark shadow passes over Hamanaptra, causing the small group of four men and the weaselish Hungarian to look up into the blue sky. No clouds are in sight. The four men glance at each other; then pay the strange incident no mind. The Hungarian crosses himself nervously; hoping that the treasure he would steal from this place would make up for coming to this cursed city. On the cliff, a stray breeze blows across the sand, erasing the only marks that someone had stood there minutes before._}   
  
  
Prologue - End   
  

> 
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	2. The City of the Dead

The Gundam Mummy - Chapter One

>   
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Disclaimer - Gundam Wing and all characters associated with it belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency. The Mummy and all characters associated with it belong to Universal pictures. Sefic and any characters not belonging to Gundam Wing and The Mummy belong to the author, Lady Koneko.   
  
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The Gundam Mummy   
a 'Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing' story   
Chapter One: The City of the Dead   
by Lady Koneko   
  
  
Hamanaptra - 195 AC   
  
  
    Going from tales told in ancient myth and legend, a splinter group of OZ had sent three of their top majors on an expedition deep in the Sahara desert to find an ancient treasure left by the Ancient Egyptians. It was their hope that this treasure would help them to help them win the war and to destroy the Gundam Pilots that stood in their way at every turn. Following the myths and legends, Majors Henderson, Burns and Daniels, with the aid of Egyptologist Professor Chamberlin and their dubious guide Benni Gabor, had found a city lost to legends. As was the great city of Troy, Hamanaptra did indeed exist, and all in the party were eager to see what treasures laid within.  
    While the main force of the expedition and Benni had thoughts of gold and jewels, and the professor of the history to be discovered the three majors were there for something specific. A treasure so valuable it made all the treasures found in the Valley of the Kings insignificant. A book, a book believed to be myth, a book that held the power of the Gods, the power over Life and Death. Major Henderson had commanded the workers to seek out and find a statue, the statue of Anubis, once camp had been set up, and to find him, Major Burns and Major Daniels once they had. According to twentieth century documents by the Bembridge Scholars, underneath that statue would be the treasure they sought.  
    The first day of exploration had left them highly unsatisfied. All the explorers had found were dusty, cobweb encrusted passages full of sand and empty chambers. In one of these chambers a group of three OZ soldiers had made what they thought would be a worthy discovery, a granite sarcophagus that had apparently fallen into the chamber from the floor above. Greed filled their hearts at the discovery, which changed to chagrin when they discovered that the sarcophagus was locked, an eight sided keyhole with a winged scarab mocking them.  
    One of the soldiers, who was a bit brighter than the average private, quickly speculated that maybe, just maybe, they should tell the majors about the discovery. All knew that the Majors were sent from a higher power from within OZ to this ancient city to look for something, maybe this was it. With promotions in mind, one of the soldiers rushed off to inform the Majors of their discovery while the other two stood watch.  
    Majors Henderson, Burns and Daniels were quick to come, once they were told of the discovery, as was Professor Chamberlin and Benni. The Professor examined the sarcophagus, a small frown on his face.  
    "Well, what is it?" Henderson demanded of the professor. "Some prince or what?" While they were after the 'other' treasure, Henderson, Burns and Daniels were not above a bit of treasure seeking for themselves.  
    "It is most strange major," Chamberlin murmured, his fingers running across the single hieroglyph on the cover. "It says... 'He Who Shall Not Be Named'." Chamberlin stood up straight, a small frown on his face and a bit of worry working its way through him. To go into the afterlife nameless... it was not a promising sign. "I will need to see the inner coffin inscription to know more of this."  
    "No problem there Professor," Burns said, reaching into his jacket pocket. "We will have this stone box open for you in no time." He pulled out a small octagonal gold puzzle box liberally decorated with hieratics and hieroglyphs. Chamberlin's thin eyebrows rose as he gazed at the box curiously. Burns maneuvered his fingers around it, and with a soft click, the top unfolded into eight jagged petals. With a smirk, Burns placed the key over the lock and turned.  
    It made a soft clicking noise as Burns turned to the right, the sound of hidden gears joining in. Then a loud hiss was heard as the airtight seal was broken, followed immediately by a gust of warm air blowing into the room. All eight men froze, and Benni glanced around nervously.  
    "Just a draft," Daniels announced, and everyone was eager to agree with him. None wanted to think about how strange it was that a draft of warm, moist air was blowing through still tunnels. He stepped forward, taking a deep breath. "Okay men, lets get this damn top off and see what we have here."  
    The other men came forward to help, all taking a hold on the granite sarcophagus lid. With a great deal of heaving and moaning, they managed to remove the top and drop it on the ground several feet out of the way. Chamberlin rushed forward, right behind him the Majors and Benni, in order to gaze inside. It was almost anticlimactical. Inside was a plain wooden coffin. Frowning, Henderson ordered the three privates and Benni to remove the coffin and prop it up against the wall.  
    "Hmmm... " Chamberlin murmured as he pulled a handkerchief out and dusted off the front of the coffin. "Highly unusual," he informed the others. "The sacred spells have been chiseled off. Whoever is inside this coffin," he placed his hand on the lid, "was condemned in the afterlife as well as in this life."  
    "Tough for him," Burns commented, not really caring about whom the luckless stiff had been. He had been looking at the coffin, noticing that it also had a lock on it. "Is it normal to lock up mummies?"  
    Chamberlin shook his head, pursing his lips in thought. "I have never heard of any locks on sarcophaguses or coffins before."  
    "Maybe there is something inside then, something that the ancient Egyptians didn't want anyone to have." Henderson grinned boyishly at his two friends, who grinned back. All had the same thought running through their minds. "Burns," he prompted.  
    Burns nodded and approached with the key again. A turn to the right, and a hissing was heard, and a second gust of wind blew into the room.  
    "I do not like this," Benni murmured to himself. The others ignored him.  
    "Ugh!" The men stumbled back from the coffin. "What the heck is that stench?" Daniels growled out. "You three," he motioned to the privates. "Open that damn coffin."  
    The three men took deep breaths of fresh air and approached the coffin. They pried their fingers into the cracks and pulled. "It's stuck," one of them said.  
    "Pull harder," Burns commanded. Nodding, they did so. They had a moment of warning that the lid was moving; when the coffin lid popped open, and out sprung a rotting corpse wrapped in oozing black bandages.  
    "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
    The corpse fell back into the coffin, its open mouth grinning hideously at them. On the other side of the room the majors composed themselves. It wasn't seemly to be seen screaming like small scared children. The three privates had fled out the door into the corridor. Cautiously, with guns raised, they looked back in. Benni peaked his head out of the sarcophagus, which was where his flight had taken him, and stared at the mummy. Bad idea. Coming here had been a bad idea after all. His many times ancestor had warned that this place was cursed. Once he got his share of the treasure, he was never returning to this place.  
    "Incredible... " Chamberlin whispered in awe. Out of the eight men present, he had recovered first. He had unearthed mummies before and knew that sometimes they sprang up at you. You got use to it after a while. Well, sort of. "He has been buried here for over three thousand years, and look at him."  
    The others did not really want to. "Uh... tell me Professor," Henderson approached gingerly and looked at the mummy. "Isn't he rather... gooey to be a mummy?"  
    Chamberlin nodded. "Exactly. It looks as if he is still decomposing. I have never heard of this." What a discovery! If he could figure out how such a thing could happen, and get the paper published, he could get tenure anywhere he asked. This was almost as good as finding Seti's treasure. That would be nice as well, the treasure, but nothing made a name faster than discovering and solving an ancient mystery.  
    "Henderson, Burns, would you look at this." The two majors and the Professor turned to Daniels, who had bent down to examine the coffin lid. The three men approached and looked. The soft wood on the inside of the coffin was covered with deep scratches. "What do you make of this?"  
    The others bent down as well. Henderson, on some impulse, ran his fingers across the scratches. They fit perfectly. "Fingernails," he murmured softly. "Someone tried to claw their way out." A shiver ran down the spines of everyone in the room.  
    "What's this?" Burns pointed out some crude hieratics written in a reddish-brown substance, dried blood. "Professor, what does that say?"  
    The Professor shone a flashlight on the markings. "It says, 'Death is only the beginning'."  
  
  
Winner Estate - Arabia   
  
  
    Heero read the mission statement a second time. Normally he would have had it memorized at the first reading, and he had, but what it said made so little sense to him he had to read it again. The message was still the same. His blue eyes narrowed; then he hit the return key, acknowledging his acceptance of the mission. Heero turned off his laptop and went to find Duo and Wufei to inform them of their mission. He found them both in the Winner family room, Duo channel surfing and Wufei sharpening his sword.  
    "We have a mission,"  
    Both Duo and Wufei sat up and looked at the Japanese boy. Without preamble, Heero told them what the mission was. Once he was finished, he fell silent.  
    The same couldn't be said for Duo, of course.  
    "We have to do ~what~?" Duo demanded, incredulous. "We have to hike out into the middle of the Sahara to some lost city and find a ~book~? Are you out of your mind?"  
    Heero stared at Duo.  
    "A book. Hidden in Hamunaptra." Wufei laid his whet stone aside and looked blankly at the wall behind Heero. He didn't ask Heero if the doctors gave them any other information about the book, what it was and where exactly it could be found. If Heero had that information, he would have given it to them. He was pretty sure he knew what the book was, however, and as to where it would be found... "This book, it would have to be _The Golden Book of Amun Ra_. It has been said to be a book out of myth."  
    Duo latched right on to that. "A mythical book? We have to go to a lost city and prevent OZ from finding a mythical book?" Duo's voice rose with each word. "Somebody is off their fucking rocker!"  
    Wufei turned to Duo. "It is said that this book holds the power of their gods. Magic," Wufei shook his head, "doesn't exist. As historical find the book would be quite valuable, but I believe that OZ is searching for a different reason." At both Duo's and Heero's looks, Wufei elaborated. "Hamunaptra is said to have been the resting place of the wealth of Egypt in the nineteenth dynasty."  
    "An unlimited source of funds. The Romefeller Foundation wouldn't need backers anymore," Duo said softly. "But why tell us to retrieve the book? We should be after the treasure."  
    Wufei shrugged and turned his attention back to his sword. "_The Golden Book of Amun Ra_ is made of solid gold." Duo's eyes widened.  
    "Sugee... "  
    "And the book may have locations of other treasures mentioned within."  
    Heero nodded, already planning the mission, which now made sense to him. The book, and the treasures that it could lead them to, could not fall into OZ's hands.  
    "Hamunaptra is said to be cursed, you know," a soft voice said from behind. The three pilots turned to the new speaker. Quatre, with Trowa right behind him, had entered the room. "It is said that Hamanaptra is home to a great evil. That there is a mummy's curse upon the place, and none who find it shall ever leave alive."  
    "What about dead?" Duo quipped. Then he grew serious. "The place is cursed?"  
    Quatre nodded, sitting on the sofa. Trowa sat next to him. "That is what I have heard about it. The Tuaregs and Bedouin both avoid the place. In their language Hamunaptra means 'Passage to the Underworld'."  
    Wufei snorted, ghost stories. Heero had a very similar reaction. Duo was giving Quatre a wide-eyed look. Heero, with a sudden thought, turned and gave Quatre a penetrating look. "You know where Hamunaptra is." It wasn't a question. Quatre gave Heero a quick look; then shook his head.  
    "No, I don't. But I do have an ancient map that has the location of Hamunaptra on it. It belonged to one of my ancestors."  
    "Your ancestor?" Duo gave Quatre a dubious look. "I thought you said that everyone who went there ended up dead."  
    "That is what the rumors say," Quatre corrected. "My ancestor was there centuries ago, early in the twentieth century. He was in the French Foreign Legion at the time. His garrison went to Hamunaptra hunting its treasure." Quatre's features took on a serious cast. "Out of two hundred men, he was the only survivor. The map is the one that his commanding officer had found, leading them directly to the City of the Dead."  
    "City of the Dead?" Duo repeated softly. No one heard him.  
    "Where is the map?" Heero demanded. The Doctors hadn't provided a map, they had no idea where Hamunaptra was, or how OZ had found the ancient city.  
    "It is kept in a secret safe." Quatre got to his feet and gave them a steady look. "Someone once tried to steal it, before the Winner family moved to the L4 colonies, but failed in taking the map. They did manage to take an artifact that was with the map, but the map itself was missed. I will go retrieve it."  
    It took Quatre ten minutes to retrieve the map from its secure hiding place and return to the others. While he was gone, Quatre missed out on Duo giving the other three Gundam pilots his personal view of the mission he had been assigned to.  
    "What the hell kind of place is called 'The City of the Dead'?" Duo demanded, his voice easily carrying down the hall. "Doesn't that say anything to anyone, like going there is a major downer on a person's life expectancy?"  
    Heero glared at his love. Trowa stared off into space, blatantly ignoring Duo. He was an innocent bystander in this one, and planned on staying one. Wufei tightened his grip on his sword.  
    "Maxwell, urusai!"  
    Still halfway down the hall, Quatre winced at Wufei's yell. Wufei was going to go horse if he kept yelling at Duo like that. He quickly made his way down the hall and entered the room, before someone decided that two pilots could preform the mission, or a switch might be a good idea. "Here is the map." He walked over to Heero and handed him a folded piece of papyrus and a yellowed piece of paper. "And this is a translation of the hieroglyphs and hieratics on the map."  
    "Nn..." Heero spread the map carefully on the coffee table before him. The others gathered around. It was an old looking map, the hieroglyphs written in bright colored inks. Wufei picked up the translation and started going over it, comparing it to the map and his knowledge of the area.  
    "It will be a moderate flight." Wufei commented several minutes later. "We will have to fly low and slowly to avoid radar. There are two OZ bases present. Here and here," he pointed at two random looking spots on the map, there were no OZ bases to be put on the map three thousand years ago. Both spots were in their path. "We will have to avoid them."  
    "Ah." Heero nodded. The terrain around the city was mountainous. A good place to hide Gundams. "We leave at dawn."  
    "But what about the curse?" a low voice asked. Heero, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei turned to their fifth member, who was holding onto his long braid for comfort. "What if the curse is real? I don't wanna met up with any mummies."  
    "Curses are not real," Heero said in a cold voice, the temperature in the room almost seeming to drop several degrees. "They do not exist."  
    "That's what you said about monsters," Duo muttered under his breath. The temperature seemed to drop even more as a deadly silence filled the room. Duo's eyes widened as he realized that he had spoken that last little bit out loud. Uh oh. He looked up at the faces of his four compatriots. "Oops?"  
    "Omae o korosu."  
    Duo eeped. That had ~not~ come from Heero. Before Wufei's hand could tighten on his sword, or Quatre to flex his fingers, Duo had bolted to the nearest door, his braid flying behind him. Wufei was after him a bare second later, with Heero, Trowa and Quatre right on his heels.  
  
  
Hamunaptra   
  
  
    Henderson, Burns and Daniels, along with Professor Chamberlin, Benni and the remaining twelve privates stared up at the lower portion of the massive statue before them. The predominantly bad mood that the majors had woken in that morning had vastly faded in lieu of this discovery.  
    After their discovery and abandonment of the gooey mummy, three privates had ran, spasaming and screaming, down the dark corridors before madly crashing headlong into the walls. All three had died, and brief examinations showed each had deep bite wounds on the sides of their feet. No other discoveries of any sort were made after that, and the remaining seventeen privates were eager to go back to camp.  
    Several hours after sunset the encampment was attacked by a small band of desert warriors, numbering twice their present number. They had the superior firepower, and a defensible position, but before the brief, violent confrontation had ended they had lost five more privates. Major Daniels had also taken a shot in the left shoulder, which had not impeded him in firing on the enemy, but had really ticked him off. What rest they got during the rest of the night was uneasy at best. They had risen with the sun, tired and cranky, and after three hours of searching they had discovered what the majors had came here to find, the statue of Anubis.  
    Professor Chamberlin knelt on the ground, studying the base of the statue. He used a small stable-hair brush and dusted off the hieroglyphs, translating as he went.  
    "Well?" Henderson demanded. "What does it say?"  
    Chamberlin started using his brush to clean the sand out of the near invisible seams around the block of hieroglyphs he had been translating. "The hieroglyphs say that there is a valuable treasure resting at the feet of Anubis," he said thoughtfully, and a bit distracted.  
    That is what the majors had been waiting to hear. "Then get out of the way," Henderson snarled, grabbing a crowbar and smashing it into one of the seams.  
    "NO!" Chamberlin jumped up and grabbed Henderson, preventing him from prying open the base.  
    "You had better have a good excuse for touching me, Professor," Henderson growled threateningly.  
< dd>Chamberlin rapidly released the major. "This seems to be a secret compartment, so consider this. The hieroglyphs all but dare a person to do what you were about to do. Why do you think that is?"  
    Henderson gave Chamberlin a studying look and lowered the crowbar. "Any suggestions then, Professor?"  
    Benni stepped forward at that moment, giving the privates a nasty smirk. The majors had given him a small measure of respect, he was their living map, but the privates had treated him lower than dirt. He had an idea.  
    "Majors, you are high in your organization. It is beneath you to do manual labor as such." Benni's smile grew wider, and a bit nasty. "Should you not have those of a lower station than you dirty their hands?"  
    "I do believe our guide has come up with an excellent suggestion." Burns said to Henderson. Henderson nodded, already convinced by Chamberlin's words.  
    Daniels, who had been studying the secret compartment, turned to the assembled group of privates. "I want three of you over here now!" he commanded, eyes narrowed and his hand uncomfortingly near his sidearm. The privates looked amongst themselves nervously, they all feared Major Daniels, and then three of the braver ones (coincidentally not the three who had discovered the mummy the day before) strode forward. They each took up a crowbar and positioned them in different cracks and started prying.  
    While the privates pried at the heavy stone, Benni -images of the day before still fresh in his mind- took several precautionary steps back toward one of the two doors in the chamber. Henderson noted this, and as his memories of the day before were just as fresh, also took a step back. His two friends were quick to follow suit. Chamberlin noted this with some amusement, but that amusement did not prevent him from stepping away from the statue as well.  
    It seemed, after a couple of minutes of prying, that the panel was loosening, and then the seams widened to a half-inch...  
    ...and a spray of milky liquid sprayed out from all around the seams, drenching the three privates.  
    The privates screamed, hitting pitches that men normally couldn't reach as the liquid stripped their cloths from them, making their flesh seem as liquid wax as it melted off of their frames, muscle and sinew quickly following. The corpses were near skeletal when they hit the ground, mere seconds later.  
    Everyone watched in shocked horror, frozen in place. The remaining privates started to shuffle toward the nearest exit, this was not why they had joined OZ, and the soft shuffling of their feet on the sandy floor snapped the majors out of their trance. Before the privates knew it, there were three desert eagles pointed at them.  
    "You men aren't going anywhere," Henderson growled. Without taking his eyes off of the potential deserters to glorious OZ, he growled at Chamberlin, "What the HELL was that!"  
    Chamberlin had approached the three corpses, giving them a quick once over before going to the statue's base. The panel had closed itself perfectly. "An ancient booby-trap. A very interesting one. Do you wish to move on, or explore this further?"  
    "We are not going anywhere," Daniels growled. He turned to the privates, waving his gun at them. "Move these corpses out of here!" Despite their reluctance to step forward, Daniels holding a gun on them was good motivation. A half hour later the corpses were in some remote chamber, buried under several inches of sand. All had reassembled in the shadow of Anubis, where the majors had made clear their desire to attempt the secret passage once again.  
    Henderson frowned as he stared at the secret panel. "Do booby-traps reset themselves?" he asked Professor Chamberlin. The Professor was also studying the secret panel. He was sure there was a trip lever somewhere, but it would probably take days to find, and their search for it might uncover another booby-trap, one as bad or worse than the last one. It was rumored that some curses used deadly plagues and viruses. He cleared his voice.  
    "I do not believe so. Now that this one has been set off, it should be safe to open it." He neglected to mention, while that particular booby-trap had been set off, there might be a secondary booby-trap.  
    "Get over here!" Daniels waved his gun at the remaining privates. "Three of you, now!" He kicked off the safety and aimed. Three privates immediately stepped forward, more due to the help of their ever-so-helpful friends than their own will. After a quick glare behind them, the three men stepped forward and picked up the dropped crowbars. With trepidation, they set them in the cracks, and hesitated.  
    Henderson aimed his gun at them, Daniels still pointing his at the others to keep them from running off. "Well, what are you waiting for?"  
    The three men looked at each other nervously, then as one started to pry out the massive stone. After a minute of prying, the stone started to give. They hesitated again.  
    "Go ahead," Burns said in a soft, menacing voice, "keep working at it."  
    With a quick prayer to God above, the men took a deep breath, and gave their all. The stone moved, and fell to the floor with a dull thunk.  
    A soft wind blew through the chamber, causing the hair on the backs of necks to rise. Three privates looked longingly toward the nearest exit. If anything else weird happened, they were out the door, guns or no guns.  
    "Move!" Henderson shoved the privates, who were surprised to see that they were still alive, out of his way and shone his flashlight into the darkened apartment. "There is a box in here."  
    Burns quickly rushed forward with Professor Chamberlin. Daniels stayed where he was, just to make sure that his men didn't decide to wander away. Chamberlin reached in, and pulled out a beautifully decorated box, covered with hieroglyphs and hieratics, decorated with brightly painted cartouches of winged sun disks and griffons. The gods were present as well, falcon-headed Horus, jackal-headed Anubis and cat-headed Bastet...  
    Chamberlin knelt down and pulled out his ever-trusty handkerchief and dusted off the lid. What treasure did the ancient Egyptians value so much, or fear, that it was entrusted to Anubis to watch over? The Egyptologist began translating, softly whispering long dead words to himself. The hair on the back of his neck began to rise, and a cold prickle raced down his spine.  
    "What does it say?" Daniels demanded, turning his head, but not his gun, in the Professor's direction.  
    His voice somber, his tone low, Chamberlin began to speak, not once removing his eyes from the deadly story before him. "There appears to be a horrid curse on this chest..."  
    "Curse? Like hell! Does it say what is in the box?"  
    Chamberlin looked up at the three majors. "Gentlemen, please. As we saw earlier, we must proceed here with caution. Things here are not like they are in our world."  
    "Caution is fine and dandy," Henderson growled. "But this old guy," he motioned at the statue, "has given us this box, so cut all the curse crap and tell us what the hell it says."  
    Professor Chamberlin gave Major Henderson a long look; then recited the phrase he had translated, and was now engraved in his mind. " 'Death shall come on swift wings to whomever defiles this chest.' "  
    A strong gust of warm, moist air blew through the chamber, and three privates bolted out the nearest door. Daniels swore gruffly as the others made suit to follow their compatriots. Less than a minute later the three majors, Chamberlin and Benni gazed down at the two remaining privates.  
    "Your aim is getting bad," Burns commented idly, taking off his glasses and peering at them, then taking out a handkerchief to wipe them off. "And here I thought I needed glasses."  
    Daniels sneered at Burns, who wasn't affected at all, and turned to the Professor. "Open the damn box."  
    His heart beating rapidly in fear, Professor Chamberlin stared down the major. He would get his say first. "The curse goes on to say that there is a mummy within this city, a mummy -should he be brought back to the world of the living- is bound by ancient and sacred law to consummate the most appalling of curses."  
    Silence filled the room as the five men recalled the discovery of the day before. Benni glanced at the exit nearest to him, then over at the three majors, measuring the distance.  
    "Well," Henderson said with false bravado -there was no way in hell he was going to let the others think he was afraid- "we will just not bring it back to life." A short pause followed that statement, and then Henderson turned to Burns. "Did you... um... lock the coffin when we left?"  
    Burns shook his head and put on his glasses.  
    With some effort, Daniels ignored his two lifelong friends. "Open the box," he repeated, his voice getting softer and more menacing.  
    "The undead mummy shall kill all those who participate in opening of this chest, and shall assimilate their organs and fluids. By doing this, he shall regenerate and be undead no more, but a plague upon the world such as that has never been seen before."  
    Burns snickered. "Makes him sound almost as bad as those damn Gundam pilots."  
    Henderson turned his head. "Benni get over here..." He rapidly looked around, accompanied by Burns, Daniels and the Professor. The little ground-grubbing fink was gone.  
    "Damned little bastard must have snuck out when we weren't looking," Daniels growled. The next time he saw the little vermin, he was sporting a bullet hole in the forehead.  
    "Is that thing booby-trapped?"  
    Blinking in confusion, Chamberlin turned to Henderson. "No, that would be a defilement of a sacred object. The curse is the booby-trap."  
    Henderson snorted and grabbed a crowbar and jammed it under the lid. "Then this box is open!"  
    "Major Henderson, don't!"  
    With a sharp crack, the lid popped open, spraying the four men in a spray of three thousand plus years old dust. After the dust settled, and the wheezing and coughing subsided, Professor Chamberlin crawled over and peered into the chest. He ignored the three majors, all of whom had their sidearms aimed at the chest. What they were expecting was something the Professor did not want to waste time speculating on.  
    Inside the crate, was a square object wrapped in soft white linin. With reverence, he reached in and pulled it out. Carefully he unwrapped the cotton, revealing for the first time in thousands of years the object within.  
    "That isn't _The Book of Amun Ra_."  
    Chamberlin shook his head, stroking the obsidian cover, reading the sacred inscriptions. "No, it isn't. It is _The Black Book of the Dead_." A second later what Henderson said sunk in. "You were seeking _The Book of Amun Ra_?"  
    The three majors scowled at the small Professor. "Then you should be interested in this book as well. It is as valuable and revered as _The Book of Amun Ra_."  
    "And locked," Burns grumbled. "Why is everything here locked?"  
    A silence filled the room as they all realized what the last lock they encountered was on. Then they looked at the book.  
    "Open it."  
    The other three men gazed at Daniels, who was holding out the key to Chamberlin.  
    "Hey! That's mine," Burns protested, his hand patting the empty jacket pocket where he had put the puzzle box that morning.  
    "You are aware that by opening this book, all responsibility and blame for what will come from that action will fall to us?"  
    "Who gives a damn, we are opening the God-damn book!" With a quick motion, he was down on his knees next to Chamberlin. With a sharp twist of his wrist, the lock gave a loud click, and a strong burst of wind, the strongest yet, rushed through the room.  
    "Okay, I have had enough," Burns holstered his gun. "Close the book and lets get it to the Commander and go on leave."  
    "Chickening out?" Daniels mocked.  
    "I think Burns might have a good idea there, Daniels. Maybe we should listen."  
    While that little conversation was going on, Professor Chamberlin, driven by a burst of curiosity and the longing to read a book long believed to be a myth, had started reading the book.  
    " '_Amun kum ra, Amun kum dei_.' "  
    The three majors stopped bickering and turned to the Professor as he repeated an incantation that had not been spoken for thousands of years, and incantation that was never meant to be read again...  
    ...and in the chamber below, within the wooden coffin, eyeless eyes opened, and rotted vocal cords vibrated as the mummy was finally able to let lose with the screams that had been unheard over three thousand years ago.  
    The scream echoed through the passages, chilling the blood of all that heard it. The seven privates, who had long split up in their mad dash, picked up the pace in their desperate search for the exit. Benni, the blood leaving his face, scurried around desperately in his search for a hiding place. While so occupied, he had time to reflect on why he had disobeyed the warning of his many times ancestor, the lone survivor of a garrison of Foreign Legionnaires who were massacred here.  
    In the chamber with the stature of Anubis, Burns hastily closed the book, interrupting the Professor's recital of the incantation.  
  
* * * * *   
  
    "Ahh-chuu!!" Heero, Duo and Wufei all sneezed at the same time. The three Gundam pilots glanced at each other then went back to what they were doing.  
    "Someone must be talking about us," Duo said casually a second later, rubbing his nose with one hand, the other leaning against a metal disk set in a frame. His weight tilted the disk skyward "Probably OZ."  
    "Maxwell, watch what you are doing!" Wufei hissed as he positioned a gleaming bronze disk. Duo snorted and angled his disk in the position that Wufei wanted.  
    "Why are we doing this?" Duo asked, stepping back. For the past half hour, Wufei had made him clean and position six disks set in frames around a crevice in the ground. Not to far away, seeming to be watching them was a huge statue, buried up to the shoulders, of a man with the head of some sort of dog, a jackal if Duo remembered his history correctly.  
    "For light," Wufei stated in a slightly strained voice. Heero looked up from the rope he was tying around a nearby pillar. Duo snorted.  
    "How are a bunch of old disks gonna give us light?"  
    Wufei sighed. There were times, every once in a great while, when he was sure that Duo was a lot smarter than he let on. Now was not one of them. He was contemplating explaining the theory behind the mirrors when Heero spoke.  
    "Do you hear that?"  
    Both Duo and Wufei paused in what they were doing and listened. Off in the distance, a soft buzzing noise, like a far off plane, getting louder, more intense caught the attention of the three teenagers.  
    "Over there!" Duo exclaimed, pointing to the horizon. A huge black cloud had risen, and was rapidly approaching their position.  
    "Sand?" Wufei asked, shading his eyes, trying to see better. Heero shook his head, doing the same.  
    "Iie."  
    Duo gave a soft gasp as the strangely pulsating cloud grew closer and the buzzing grew louder. He spun around and leaped off the shelf he was standing on. "Get into the crevice, now!"  
    Heero and Wufei watched in surprise as Duo threw the rope in, gave it a vicious tug to be sure it was fastened securely, and started repelling down. They turned to the cloud, and now they could see it wasn't a cloud in the true sense of the word, but a mass of dark insects flying through the air, heading straight toward them! Wufei leaped down from where he was and quickly slid down the rope. Heero was right behind him. He waited as long as he could for Wufei to be clear, and, instead of grabbing the rope; he slid his legs into the crevice and jumped just as the first of the insects reached him!  
    Heero landed a bare three feet from Wufei, who had just touched the ground himself. Duo was several yards away, his flashlight already out and on, looking around the room.  
    "What was that?" Wufei demanded, his voice shaken.  
    "Locusts," Duo said softly. "A swarm of locusts. In the bible they were one of the ten plagues visited on the Egyptians when the Pharaoh refused to free Moses and his people." Heero and Wufei both blinked in astonishment and stared at Duo. "Huh?" Duo said, feeling their looks on him. "Hey! I do know things, after all!"  
    "Where are we?" Heero asked, changing the subject. Wufei pulled out his flashlight and shone it around the room then looked up at the crevice. The dark cloud of insects was gone. Nodding to himself, he walked toward a bronze mirror on a stand much like the ones they had found above. He tilted it slightly, catching a ray of sun streaming down, and the ray bounced off and hit another mirror. In seconds, the beam of light had made its way around the room, shining off of a dozen other mirrors, providing more than adequate light to see by.  
    "Neat trick," Duo murmured. Then he looked around. "Sugee..." Heero and Wufei looked around the room, trying to see what Duo had seen. Their gaze fell onto walls, showing them the intricate carvings of geometric designs and figures of gods and goddesses that had been painstakingly carved into the walls.  
    "Wondrous," Wufei breathed in reverence as he looked up, all of his scholarly instincts taking over. This was the discovery of a lifetime. The ceiling was even carved. His fingers itched to touch something, anything, just to reassure himself that this was real. "No living man has walked into this room for over three thousand years."  
    "That is nice," Duo commented. "But what is this room, and how far away is the treasure from here?"  
    Wufei closed his eyes in deep pain and sighed. The history of this place called to him, the wonders of discovery of an ancient race, and he was stuck with a treasure-hungry American loudmouth and a suicidal bent perfect soldier. There was no justice in the world. "We are in a _Sah-Netjer_," he finally said in defeat.  
    "Ah!" Duo nodded, as if he understood what Wufei had said. "Which means..."  
    This hurt, badly. "It is a preparation chamber, Maxwell." Wufei bit out. And if he asked what ~that~ meant...  
    "Ah!" Duo exclaimed again, looking around the room at the various devices that looked a lot like instruments of torture. "A mummy room! So, what kind is it, first class, second class or steerage?"  
    Heero and Wufei both stared at Duo for a moment, before deciding not to bother with him. Heero, because whatever Duo was babbling about, as usual, had nothing to do with the mission, and was thus not worth paying any attention to. Besides which, he was pretty sure he didn't want to know what he was talking about. Mummies were something that ranked way down on the bottom of the list of things he wanted to know about. Way at the bottom. And it was going to stay there, too. Wufei because he was beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that Duo knew much more about ancient Egyptian culture and history than he was letting on to. Which mean there was a good chance he knew exactly what the mirrors were used for. Which meant he made all that fuss about setting them up properly just to harass him. And if that was true, he did _not_ want to know!  
    "So," Duo, unaware of what the others were thinking, sat down on a pedestal-like altar not far away from the opening of the crevice. "What do we do now?"  
    Wufei was giving Duo a slightly sick look. "Do you have any idea what you are sitting on was used for?"  
    "Eh?" With a wicked grin, Duo looked over at Wufei. "Whoever last used it is long gone, and why fear the dead?" He patted the granite block. "Besides, just think. I am probably the first living body ever to be on this table!"  
    A greenish tinge shadowed his normal caramel skin tone at the imagery Duo's words summoned. Before he could say something derogatory about how morbid Duo was being, probably for his benefit, Heero gave them both cold scowls and snorted. Without waiting for them, he quickly marched out of the room. With a smile and a shake of his head, Duo hopped down and walked after him, Wufei right beside him.  
  
* * * * *   
  
    The four men shook like small children. "What was that?" Henderson demanded in a shaky voice. "Someone tell me that it was natural, whatever it was."  
    "It sounded like it came from beneath this very room," Professor Chamberlin looked away from the book, which had locked itself the moment Burns shut it, down at the sand-covered stone floor.  
    "Does it matter?" Daniels asked.  
    Obviously Burns thought so, for he had pulled out a battered notebook from one of his jacket's pockets at the Professor's observation. "I think," he murmured, running his finger across the paper, following this passage and that, his own hand drawn map of the City of the Dead. "That beneath us is," he flipped several pages down, his finger following the mark of his pencil until he came to an area marked as a chamber. "The room we found the mummy in..." his voice trailed off as he looked to his feet. The other three followed his gaze, then looked at each other.  
    "The sarcophagus must have fallen through the ceiling into the chamber below," Chamberlin whispered. "He was buried at the feet of Anubis." That meant nothing to the three majors, but it said a lot to the Professor. Whoever the mummy was, he needed one of the Gods to keep an eye on him. This was getting worse and worse.  
    "We should be leaving now," Burns said hastily, cramming his notebook into his pocket and grabbing the key from where it was sitting on the floor. "Go back, make our report, and forget this place ever existed."  
    "Sounds good to me Burns," Henderson quickly said. While it was not acceptable to admit to cowardice, prudence did dictate a retreat at this point in time. "Daniels?" Daniels nodded sullenly. He agreed, but he wasn't happy about it.  
    "All this damn way," Daniels growled, "and we leave without the damn book!" Driven by frustration and rage, Daniels savagely kicked in the side of the small chest, much to the chagrin of the Professor. The force of the blow splintered the ancient wood, but underneath the sound of the chest breaking was the soft chiming of glass objects knocking against each other.  
    "What is this?" Chamberlin reached out and cleared away the wood from the broken panel. Hidden in a special compartment at the bottom of the chest were several canopic jars.  
    "Oh!" Henderson bent down and pulled out one of the jars, one with a falcon on the lid. "Treasure."  
    "Canopic jars," Chamberlin duly informed the majors as Henderson pulled out the rest of the hidden jars. "They contain the preserved entrails of a mummy." He grew silent as he watched Major Henderson hand out the jars, one to each of them. A fifth jar had been broken sometime during the thousands of years it had been in hiding, and the site of that jar sent a frizzle of dread down his spine. Normally there were only four sacred jars, one each to contain the liver, stomach, lungs, and intestines. The presence of a fifth jar, for the heart, was unsettling, for the ancient Egyptians believed in leaving the heart in the mummy, so it could stand before Osiris and be judged.  
    Before Chamberlin could comment on this, a shrill scream echoed through the corridors. A second scream quickly followed, and abruptly cut off. Then there was silence.  
    "Definitely time to leave!" Burns announced, clutching his jar tightly in one arm, his hand going to his gun. This time there were no arguments, hard feelings or recriminations. The men quickly gathered themselves and rapidly left the room.  
  
* * * * *   
  
    "Did you hear that?" Duo hissed sharply, shining his flashlight rapidly up and down the corridor they were walking in. "Screaming."  
    Wufei snorted as he walked past Duo. "Nothing to worry about Maxwell. Someone probably found a weak spot and fell through the floor..." Wufei then realized what it was he said, and stopped walking right before he ran into Heero, who had stopped as quickly as Duo had behind them.  
    "Thanks a lot Wufei," Duo said sarcastically, crossing his arms and glaring at the Chinese pilot. "That makes me feel ~sooo~ much better, knowing that the floor is going to cave in on me before the curse gets me." He was then the recipient of two sets of glares, one icy blue, one burning black.  
    "Duo..." Heero growled warningly.  
    "Urusai," Wufei hissed. Neither of them wanted to hear about curses anymore.  
    Duo, as he always did, ignored them. "Who would have believed that I, the Great Duo Maxwell, would perish in some ~stupid~ hole in the ground looking for some ~stupid~ book!"  
    "Shh!" Heero held out his arm, motioning for Duo to keep quiet, his eyes locked on the passage before him. Reflecting off the wall at a bend in the passage was a moving spot of light.  
    "OZ," Duo whispered, suddenly serious. As one the three Gundam pilots switched off their flashlights. The dim light of the corridor was barely fit to see with, but they had been trained to perform in complete darkness.  
    Silently they crept forward, what little sound their shoes made muffled by the inches-thick layer of sand. As they approached the bend, the light grew more prominent, and they could hear the whisper of a pair of shoes walking toward them. Heero listened for a moment, then turned to his two companions and held up one finger. Duo and Wufei nodded, understanding what Heero was telling them. Only one person was in the corridor before them. Heero reached into the front of his shorts and pulled out his gun, as did Wufei. Duo pulled out his flashlight, aiming it at the bend. Once whomever it was came around, Duo was going to blind him.  
    The soft whisper of shoes grew closer and closer, and then, right at the bend, it stopped. The three pilots remained still, as only trained terrorists could, and waited. After a short pause, the footsteps began again, and the light swept around the corner.  
    Duo flashed on his light, blinding the person, who surprisingly did not call out. Heero jetted forward, sweeping the person to his feet, and grabbed the flashlight, flinging it hard against the wall. The man had been unarmed. Wufei, who had trained his gun on the person, was the one who first realized who it was they had captured.  
    "Treize Khushrenada!" he blurted out in shock.  
    Heero and Duo both gave the prone form astonished looks. For Heero, this translated to his eyebrows arching and his eyes opening wide. What was the leader of OZ doing running around buried corridors of an ancient city?  
    Treize looked up at the three young men who had surprised him. Gundam pilots? Here? And his Dragon was one of them. "It is quite surprising to find myself captured by Gundam pilots in this city. I do not suppose you are at liberty to say why you are here."  
    "Hnn." Heero raised his gun, pointing it at Treize's chest.  
    "I don't suppose you can say why ~you~ are here, can you?" Duo asked. Treize gave Duo an amused smile, shaking his head. "As I am apparently your captive, I don't believe I have much in the way of a choice. But first, may I please stand? I am unarmed and at your mercy, and the sand is quite uncomfortable."  
    Heero's eyes hardened, but Wufei nodded. "You may get to your feet." Treize nodded, and slowly rose.  
    "I am here to prevent a great tragedy from happening." Treize announced, brushing off his cloths, acting totally unconcerned that he was being held at gunpoint by three of the most wanted young men on or off the planet. "It came to my attention that a certain individual, high in the Romefeller Foundation, has came across the means to gain access to one of the greatest books of antiquity."  
    "_The Golden Book of Amun Ra_," Wufei stated, earning him a slighlty surprised nod from Treize, a hard look from Heero, and a quizzical one from Duo.  
    "Correct. There have been others before him that knew of this book, of where it was and of what it contained, but it has always been considered too dangerous a risk for what one would achieve from it."  
    "Hold it!" Duo held up his hand. "You mean, you came here to ~stop~ them from getting the book?"  
    Treize looked over at the American pilot. "Yes, Duo Maxwell, I did."  
    "Why?" Duo demanded, then his eyes widened in realization. "The curse, it ~is~ real!" Treize nodded. Unseen by the others, Heero and Wufei winced. Great. Duo was getting encouragement. Just what they did ~not~ need.  
    "Indeed it is. Which is why, in over three thousand years, no one has ever successfully left this city alive."  
    "Curses are not real!" Heero growled, sighting down on Treize. He didn't know what to make of the General's claim, and didn't really care. His mission was to retrieve the book, and to eliminate any obstacles that stood in his way. He aimed carefully, with this bullet he would end one of the major problems in OZ, then the floor shook.  
    "Hey!" Duo yelped, flashing his light around them. "What was... that... " his voice faded off as he stared behind them. Wufei, Treize and even Heero looked to see what had caused Duo not to end his sentence. From the direction that the three pilots had came from, a mound of sand was rising up in the middle of the corridor, nearly reaching the height of a grown man. Duo's mouth was working rapidly, his voice straining to work, but nothing would come. Then the top of the mound seemed to spill open, and a wave of black, chittering beetles came pouring out toward them!  
    Duo, being a true red-blooded American who has watched one to many B rated horror movies, screamed, turned and bolted down the corridor. He paused in his flight just long enough to grab Heero -who for the first time in his life was gaping at something- and haul him after him. Wufei, who would most definitely protest if someone brought up the fact that he had reacted the same as Duo, also decided in a split-second of time that running was a damn fine idea. Much as Duo had, he turned tail and ran, pausing to grab Treize by the wrist, whom -being a well-bred European noble- was staring in amazement at the wave of carrion beetles pouring toward him, much the same as Heero had been.  
    The four men ran down the dim corridors, running madly in the dim light as Duo had dropped his flashlight before he bolted, the chittering mass of man-eating scarab beetles following.  
  
* * * * *   
  
    "Run for your lives!!!"  
    In another part of the City of the Dead, Professor Chamberlin and the three majors had encountered their own mass of wriggling, hungry insects. During their mad flight, in which they joined up with two of their missing privates, Major Burns had gotten separated from his friends. In normal conditions this wouldn't have mattered much, and even in this situation it wouldn't have been tragic, if it weren't for the fact that Burns had tripped over a fallen stone, and knocked his glasses off, rendering him blind. Not blind in the sense that he couldn't see anything, however. Blind in the sense that everything was now indistinct colored blurs. And with his vision being on the wrong side of legally blind without corrective lenses, he was indeed in a spot of trouble.  
    And that wasn't even the half of it. "Daniels? Henderson! Where are you!" An indistinct figure separated itself from the wall ahead of him. Burns narrowed his eyes at the silent figure, trying to make out who it was. "Henderson, is that you?" The figure shambled toward him, and Burns had the sensation that something was wrong. If it had been one of his friends, or one of the privates or Benni, wouldn't they have said something by now? Then a sickeningly sweet sent reached him, one of decayed flesh. A choked scream made its way up his throat, the last sound he made as the figure, now close enough for Burns to see the decayed flesh and eyeless sockets of the mummy they had unearthed the day before, grabbed him.  
  
* * * * *   
  
    The three Gundam pilots and the leader of OZ ran as if all the demons of Hades were after them. Which, if they had been given time to reflect, they probably would have chosen over the scarabs that were chasing them. Better odds of survival. As it was, they ran. Duo had finally released Heero, mainly because Heero could run faster in his tennis shoes than Duo could in his riding boots on sand. Behind them Treize had also made the discovery that fast exits and boots did not mix well with sand. Wufei, in his slippers, was not doing much better. After zigzagging through corridor after corridor they entered a large moderately well lit chamber with a set of stairs carved into the wall, several empty pedestals, and some deep open space between it all. As there was nowhere else to run, they made for the stairs. Halfway up the stairs Heero leaped for one of the pedestals, one to the left surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. Duo, not quite crazy enough to leap over six feet of long drop, dove for an alcove to the right which was positioned a safe yard above the stairs. Wufei, still holding onto Treize, jumped for a pedestal several feet below the one Heero was on, it being the last available space to jump to. Wufei made the jump with no problem, but the slick soles of Treize's boots slid on the sandstone and only Wufei's grip kept him from sliding into the waiting abyss.  
    As one, the four pilots watched as the wriggling mass of insects flowed up the stairs and out the door. They watched as several stragglers raced after the others, and then while they gave the beetles time to travel away from them, Duo leaned back against the wall in relief. He had never been so scared before in his life. Dying in battle, or being shot by an OZ soldier was preferable to be eaten alive by beetles. Even being captured by Lady Une was preferable, and that was saying a lot. He rested his full weight against the sandstone blocks, and suddenly they gave away on him. Before he had a chance to yell out, he was gone from view and the trap door shut without a sound.  
    "I believe it is safe now," Wufei whispered, shaken. Having a hoard of flesh-eating scarabs chase you was a sobering experience.  
    "Nng," Heero nodded slightly, eyes still locked on the head of the stairs. Then he turned to where his love was. The alcove was empty. He frowned, looking around. "Duo?" Wufei and Treize looked across the stairs at the empty space where they had last seen the pilot of Deathscythe Hell at the sound of Heero's question. In a moment Heero had easily leaped to the stairs and had rushed over and jumped up to the alcove. No sign of Duo anywhere. He ran his fingers across the wall, and his fingers encountered fine seams in the sandstone.  
    "Secret passage?" Wufei asked, coming up behind Heero. He gave a curt nod, and pushed against the wall.  
    "It looks as if Duo accidentally found the lever," Heero's eyes narrowed and he turned his head. Standing behind Wufei was Treize, who was studying the wall himself. "It shouldn't take much time to find it, if he found it so easily."  
    Wufei closed his eyes. Treize had no idea...  
    "Baka," Heero growled, turning his attention back to the wall. Stupid braided idiot. Couldn't he keep out of trouble for ten minutes consecutively? And this mission was not a good mission for him to go running around and getting into trouble. His fingers ran across the sandstone wall. The lever had to be around here somewhere.  
    A scream came from the corridor beyond the head of the stairs. The three pilots turned and looked up, just in time to see four men rush in. Three were OZ soldiers, two of them majors and they were running as though their lives depended on it.  
    "Get out of the way you bastards! Run for it!" Henderson yelled as he raced for the three pilots. Behind them came the highly familiar, unwelcomed sound of chittering. Wufei and Treize flattened themselves against the wall as Henderson and Daniels rushed past before they were knocked off the stairs, then started running themselves. Heero gave the wall one last, futile shove then jumped off himself and chased after the others. Ahead of him one of the OZ soldiers tripped over his own feet, sprawling down the rest of the stairs and landing on his face on the sandy floor. Heero hurdled over him, not even considering saving him. The beetles closed in.  
    Treize had stopped and turned around upon hearing the man's panicked scream, and watched as Heero leaped over the fallen man. He started to go back and help the soldier, when Wufei grabbed his arm.  
    "No. He is dead."  
    Heero shoved Wufei, and Treize as well, down the corridor just as a screech came from behind him. The two Gundam pilots turned, and Treize paled as the scarabs massed over the fallen man, consuming him.  
    "Run," Heero growled, starting to run down the corridor. The other men had disappeared from view, and Heero chose a corridor that looked as if no one had traveled through it yet. With the beetles occupied by their meal, they should be able to get away. Wufei grabbed Treize and hauled him after them.  

> 
> * * * * *   
  
    "Damn, fucking, stupid DOOR!" Duo banged his fists against the wall where he had fallen through. "Open the hell back up and let me through!" But the door, like a certain princess he was acquainted with, did not listen.  
    "Shit!" Duo growled, kicking up sand. Now what the hell was he supposed to do? "Go to the city, find the book, no problem," Duo growled under his breath. "I'm gonna kill someone for this." Who, he was not sure of yet, but someone. He peered around in the darkness. There seemed to be a glimmer of light ahead of him. At this moment, running across OZ wouldn't be bad. It sure beat the beetles, and he could flinch a flashlight off of them and go in search of Heero and Wufei. And the exit. The exit was very important to Duo. At this point, the mission could go to hell in a hand basket as far as he was concerned. He just wanted out.  
    He walked toward the light; it didn't seem to be a flashlight, too diffused. Probably a natural source, maybe another network of mirrors was providing it. He rounded a corner; then froze. Ahead of him his back toward Duo, was an OZ soldier. Duo tilted his head to one side, watching the man. He was acting weird; his hands held out in front of him, shuffling slowly across the sand, making strange choked moaning sounds.  
    '_Hell,_' Duo thought, walking toward the man. '_Grab his gun and make him lead you out of here. They found the damn place, they've got to have a map of the joint._'  
    With fingers skilled with years of practice, Duo flinched the gun and pointed it at the man's back. "Okay man, you are leading me out of this hell-hole, so march!" Duo stumbled back as the man spun around, his arms waiving for balance. Then he gasped as he looked at the man.  
    "God!" Duo gagged as he backed away, the gun still pointed at the soldier. The man had had his eyes ripped out! Empty gapping sockets stared at Duo, blood dribbling down the man's cheeks like vampire tears. The man made motions as though to speak, and a frothy bubbly burble came from his lips. Duo realized in horror that the man's tongue had been ripped out as well. He placed his hand over his mouth to keep from retching.  
    The man continued to come toward him, making desperate sobbing sounds deep within his throat. Duo continued to back away, wanting to run, but unable to look away. He took several more steps; he should be coming up on a passage way any moment now, when he ran into someone. Duo spun around, hoping that it was Heero, and gazed upon a three thousand plus year old mummy, who was gazing at him with fresh eyeballs.  
    The mummy blinked and peered at Duo, his new eyes not being the best. It made out a delicate face, huge eyes, and long hair pulled back into a braid. Could it be?  
    "_Anck-su-namun?_"  
    Duo gagged back vomit as he watched a fresh pink tongue shape unfamiliar words in a face that had definitely seen better years, and screamed. Unable to do anything coherently, his body acted on automatic and Duo stumbled backwards until he encountered a wall. The mummy started shuffling toward him, a rotting hand held out to him. It was like one of Duo's worst nightmares coming true. Scratch that, it was his worst nightmare come to reality.  
    Off to the side there was a low wailing as Burns, recognizing the voice of the monster that had attacked him, tried to crawl away. The mummy gave Burns a brief glance, but turned away. All its attention was on the frail form braced against the wall before him.  
    "_Kadeesh pahros Anck-su-namun!_" Imhotep called out, reaching toward Duo.  
    Shivering with terror, his blood running like ice in his veins, Duo valiantly tried to escape the living nightmare he was immersed in. He hugged the wall, knowing that if he stepped away that his knees would give away, and inched his way along the wall. The mummy slowly shuffled after him, rotting muscles and ligaments struggling to work, and Duo realized that if he could only get his legs working right he could outrun the living corpse and get away. With force of will, Duo kept up his stumbling slide along the wall, neither gaining nor losing ground to the approaching horror. Then one questing hand ran out of wall and encountered open space. An exit. With a low whimper of relief, Duo spun into the doorway as well as shaky legs could manage, and ran into a body.  
    "AHHHHH!!!" Duo yelled, nerves finally snapping.  
    "Baka!" a low voice responded. Duo froze, looked up, and lunged into his koi's arms.  
    "Save me! It's gonna get me!"  
    Heero shook his head. "Quit fooling around," he growled, peeling Duo off of him, which was by no means a simple task. It seemed as if Duo had been taking lessons from an octopus, or Relena. As he tried to remove the desperately clinging Duo from his person, he realized that his partner was shaking like a leaf, and that there was a sheen of sweat on his chilled skin. He grabbed Duo's arms and thrusted him away to arms length. "What is it?" Heero's blue eyes met wide, terror-stricken violet ones. Duo shook his head, unable to say anything. Behind Heero, Wufei and Treize finally caught up with them. They saw the two pilots; then looked into the chamber beyond.  
    "Dear God!" Treize gasped out. A low moan came from Duo as he saw the looks on Wufei and Treize's faces, and realized that the mummy was probably still approaching.  
    Heero glanced up and beyond Duo; then paled. In one move he had thrown Duo protectively behind him and pulled out his gun. With dead-on accuracy Heero placed six bullets through the creature's chest. The mummy stumbled; then collapsed onto the ground limply.  
    "M... mu... mummy!" Duo finally forced out. He had curled his arms around his knees and was holding himself in a shuddering ball on the sandy floor.  
    "Who is here... holy shit!" Henderson yelled out as he, Daniels and Professor Chamberlin, who they had just encountered in the passageway a few minutes ago, skidded to a halt on the other side of the room. They gazed at the putrid mass of rotting flesh and oozing bandages on the floor. "The mummy!"  
    Heero instantly focused on them.  
    "Burns!" Daniels called out, rushing over to the broken, whimpering mass of humanity that was huddled in the corner. Henderson went to help, with Chamberlin silently watching. "Good hell, what happened to you?" Burns lifted his head, his blood-kissed cheeks shining darkly in the dim light.  
    "The curse," Treize whispered, looking from the three majors to the Egyptologist. "You four have unleashed this curse upon us."  
    It was a sign on how rattled they were that Heero and Wufei did not react to the mention of the curse. Heero kept his eyes on the OZ soldiers while he helped Duo to his feet. Duo collapsed against him like a rag doll, wrapping his arms around his neck as though he would never let go.  
    "What do we do now?" Wufei asked, keeping a cautious eye on the remains of the mummy. This was out of his realm of expertise. Reading about curses did not in any way prepare you to deal with the actual thing. With the two majors occupied with their injured friend, and Chamberlin lost in his own thoughts, Treize shook his head. "I do not know Wufei. I do not know."  
    "Can we leave?" Duo whimpered. "I would really like to go now."  
    "Burns needs medical care... General Khushrenada!" Henderson and Daniels stood at attention as well as they could with Burns propped up between them.  
    "At ease gentlemen. We will leave, but first," he turned and looked at the remains of the mummy, "first we must deal with this."  
    "It is dead," Heero said flatly, Prussian blue eyes boring into Treize. Treize shook his head, but it was the professor who spoke next.  
    "It is the undead, nothing can stop it. It is a plague that will destroy the world..."  
    From his tone of voice, everyone could tell that his grasp of reality was starting to slip.  
    "I would really like to leave," Duo whispered again. "Now, onegai?"  
    "Hnn..." Heero turned to Wufei. "Wufei... " his eyes narrowed. Wufei had gone pale. He frowned, noting that Wufei was staring at something behind him, and turned.  
    The mummy's hand was moving. Duo's breath caught as he saw it, his grip on Heero tightening. The others, their gaze also drawn to the mummy, saw the slight movement, and came up with an immediate plan of action. It was high time to leave. Quickly they gathered their injured member and the eight men quickly left the chamber for the exit.  
    "We never should have come here," Duo whispered to himself as Heero half-carried him down the corridor they were running through. "Never should have come."  
    Heero silently agreed with him.  
  
* * * * *   
  
    Deep within Hamunaptra, Benni finally emerged from hiding. He had no idea how long he had been hiding, but it had been some time since the last scream echoed down the winding corridors. Maybe it was now safe for him to make a run for it.  
    He peered out of the stone nook he had squeezed his thin frame in, and listened. Nothing. He took out his flashlight and turned it on, then looked up and down the corridor. No one was in sight. Time to leave. He slipped out of his hiding place, and started to slink down the corridor. He wasn't sure what had happened, didn't want to know, but he knew that it would be a bad idea to make any noise and attract attention. After several minutes of wandering, he found himself back in the room he has slipped out of earlier. Benni looked up at the mostly buried stature of Anubis, and shuddered. He would never return to this cursed place. He turned around, and came face to face with the grinning face of the mummy.   
  
  
Chapter One - End   
  



	3. The Land of the Living

The Gundam Mummy - Chapter Two 

* * * * * * * 

Disclaimer - Gundam Wing and all characters associated with it belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency. The Mummy and all characters associated with it belong to Universal pictures. Sefic and any characters not belonging to Gundam Wing and The Mummy belong to the author, Lady Koneko. 

Author's Notes - Okay minna, this is as far as I have written, and it shall be a while before chapter three and the epilogue make an apperence. I know what exactly is going to happen, I just have to get it all typed out... 

* * * * * * *   
  
  
  


~~Prologue~~   


Cold...it was so cold. So cold that it went beyond cold, freezing everything, even the soul.

_...no..._

Dark it was so dark. Not the darkness of space, so full of everything that all could not be seen, not a comforting blanket of darkness with a spill of shining diamonds watching. The darkness of nothing, and he was in that nothing

_...no...please..._

The boy could feel them, the eyes, watching from the nothingness. Just watching. That was all they did. They never condemned, they never acted. The boy couldn't see them, but he knew that they could see him, see beyond his masks, his fears. 

And they watched. 

The nothing changed around him, and the boy shivered in dread resignation and growing horror of what he couldn't prevent. Of what has been. 

_...please...not again..._

An old church in ruin slowly formed around the boy. Most of the ceiling was gone, and the rafters rested in odd angles across the broken and tumbled pews. Though no light shown in from the open roof, there was plenty of light for the boy to see by. Stain glass windows, once works of art and inspiration and now shattered, glowed as though the sun shone through them. There was no sun, beyond the broken glass was more of the ever encompassing, ever present darkness. 

Off in the distance, softly, then growing louder, there was the sound of dripping. Not from any one place, but from everywhere and nowhere. The muted scent of copper and the sickening scent of death filled the air of the church. 

_...not again..._

The boy crawled across the floor, to the front of the church. Hands and knees encountered pools of warm stickiness that he avoided looking at, knowing what it was, and not wanting to acknowledge it. He continued his desperate crawl to the front of the church, to the faint refuge that the alter would provide. 

Soft footfall from the back of the church, the sounds of boots on wooden floors, made themselves heard. The boy reached the alter, and leaned against it. 

_...stop..._

The footfalls continued, not growing louder, not yet, but growing in numbers until the boy could not make out the sounds of individual footfalls. The boy's hand crept from the smooth wood of the alter to fumble at the neckline of his shirt. Fingers, clumsy from fear, encountered a chain, pulling on it until they encountered the comforting shape of a cross. With it grasped desperately in his hand, and knowing that what he did was pointless, the boy turned and faced down the isle of the church. 

_...please stop..._

The double doors were in the same shape as the rest of the church. One door hung crookedly by a single hinge, the other was braced shut by a beam that had fallen against, then through the thick wood. 

The footfalls were getting louder now, as they approached, and the boy could see something in the darkness beyond the one door, something moving. The scent of death grew stronger, and a new scent made its entrance, the putrid scent of decaying flesh. The boy whimpered even as he braced his back against the alter, afraid of what he was about to see. 

_...someone..._

They came through the door in pairs. Side by side they made their way up the aisle toward him. Grown men, soldiers, some were wearing the uniforms of Federation soldiers; others were wearing the more elaborate uniform of the OZ Specials. 

_...stop this..._

The scent of death and decay grew as the soldiers grew nearer, and the boy's eyes were locked on the soldiers as they came to him. 

Solders of the dead. 

They came to him as they had died, bodies broken and torn from battle. Their eyes gleamed coldly as they shuffled and limped to the one who had killed them. The boy pressed back, unable to act, knowing that there was nothing he could do. Times before, he had tried to run from them, or hide from them. It had never worked. No matter what he had done, they had always found him, always caught him... 

The corpses grew closer, and the boy could see the changes time had wrought since the last time he had been here. The older corpses, those he knew the best, were decaying. The flesh was falling from their bones, and dark fluids dripped from them. Intermixed with them were new faces, fresh corpses, dripping blood and gore as they approached the one who caused them to be here. 

_...someone..._

They surrounded him, grinning at him with twisted smiles of darkened teeth and rotted flesh.

"Nooooo..." 

The scream filled the church as the dead closed in on the young boy, hands touching him, hands holding him, hands pulling at him... 

And in the darkness, the eyes watched. 

* * * * * * *   
  
The Gundam Mummy   
a 'Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing' story   
Chapter Two: The Land of the Living   
  
  
  
Cairo - 195 AC   
  


Duo woke the next morning in a near panic. He sat up in bed, gasping, wide eyes rapidly searching the room as his chest heaved. He started taking deap, steady breaths to attempt to calm his rapidly beating, fear driven heart. The room was empty. Not another soul, either living or dead, was present. 

_Hate those dreams,_ Duo moaned to himself and lowered his head into his shaking hands. _Just hate them._ Dreams of the dead. Dreams of all those whom he had killed coming for him. And silently watching him from the darkness were all those who had perished in the Maxwell Church Massacre. Not condemning, but always there. He shivered. He hadn't had one those dreams since he and Heero became a couple. There was nothing like curling up against the warm body of the one you love to keep ghosts of the past at bay. With the wonderful fun and games of the day before, it was no wonder that the dream had returned in all its gory detail. Giving a resigned sigh, Duo fought his way out of the tangle of sheets and climbed out of bed. 

The interesting things had not ended once they left Hamanaptra either. Upon exiting the city, they had all boarded Treize's private jet (mainly because it was the quickest way to leave) and made for Cairo. Since Treize knew of their presence at The City of the Dead, he had to be neutralized. Surprisingly though, Treize had not made mention of the identity of the three teens to anyone. When Major Henderson had asked on the flight back just who these boys were, Treize had told him that they were three students on leave who had gotten lost exploring the desert and had stumbled across Hamanaptra. All three Gundam pilots were shocked, but schooled their expressions so that no one noticed. The two majors bought the story, and had left them alone. Wufei, quickly adopting the attitude of an innocent student, had asked if he could sit up in the cockpit and watch Treize pilot the plane. Treize had given Wufei a knowledgeable grin, and agreed. Heero had no arguments with this. Someone needed to keep an eye on Treize. 

Once in Cairo, Treize had them all taken to his current place of residence, Fort Brydon. Originally it had been a twentieth century British fort, it now served as a minor OZ base and living quarters for OZ officials staying in Egypt; its old time amenities being a charming difference from the modern bases that were far more common, making it more like a resort than a working base. 

As soon as they arrived at the fort and settled in, they all went their separate ways. Henderson and Daniels took Burns to the base's doctor. Professor Chamberlin quietly took note of the location of his room and left. He hadn't said a word since Hamanaptra. Wufei and Treize had left together, telling the others that they had discovered on the flight that they both had a mutual appreciation of the sword. They were off to have a duel. Duo had rolled his eyes in disbelief and Heero had narrowed his before he grabbed Duo by the braid and hauled him off to their room. 

Duo had still been upset by what had happened earlier, and as soon as he and Heero had reached the relative safety of their room, he had taken a long hot shower to calm his frazzled nerves, and to wash all the sand out of his long hair. It took the better part of an hour before he felt ready to leave. Bundled up in two Turkish towels, Duo went and sat on the bed to watch Heero while he dried his hair. Heero had summoned up his laptop out of somewhere (Duo had yet to figure out just where Heero kept it, just as he did not know where Wufei kept his sword.) and was busy typing on it. After drying his hair Duo retired for the day, mentally and physically exhausted. Heero had stayed up late into the night typing on his laptop. 

"Knew the curse was real, but would anyone listen to little ol' me?" Duo asked of the empty room. "Noo~o, of course not. 'Curses are not real Duo,' they said. 'Mummies do not attack people Duo.' Yeah right!" Someone was going to be eating his words; that was for sure. He stood up and went in search of his cloths. They weren't scattered across the floor, which was where he had left them the day before, so Heero must have picked them up. Who knew where they were then. "And I know Heero is planning on going back, haven't completed the mission yet," Duo grumbled. " 'Nimun ryoukai.' He has got to learn when a mission just isn't worth completing. Hm... Not in the dresser..." And Heero wouldn't have shoved them under the bed; that was something he would do. Lets see... he looked over at the wardrobe. The building was so old it didn't even have proper closets. "I am going to find him, convince him that this mission blows, and to tell the doctors that if ~they~ want the fucking book so bad, then ~they~ can go and get the damn thing themselves. Serve them right," he muttered, opening the wardrobe. "~I'm~ not going back to that pile of rocks, no way in hell!" His cloths were not here either, but a new chambre shirt of red silk was on a hanger, and on the shelf below that was a pair of black jeans, socks, under shorts and a pair of black sneakers. They were the only cloths present. "Guess I have to were these." Duo held the shirt up and looked at it. His size. Wondering just where the new cloths came from -he was pretty sure Heero hadn't gone off on a shopping trip- he quickly took a shower and got dressed. 

"Not bad Duo," he nodded to himself as he looked at his slim form reflecting back at him from the full-length mirror, spinning to see if the gun he had hidden at the small of his back was visible with the way he was wearing his shirt. It wasn't. Neither was the knife he had sheathed at his ankle. They may be unwitting guests here, but there was no way he was going to run around unarmed in an OZ base. The only problem he could see was that it was going to be damn uncomfortable to walk around all day with the gun pressed against his bare skin. How did Heero do it? And it would be a bit difficult to draw, he would have to pull his shirttails out to grab it, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances. "Not bad at all." While he preferred black, there was nothing like red to bring out the highlights in his hair. "No way Heero picked out this shirt." Heero wouldn't know fashion sense if it jumped out and bit him. Ah well, time to get going. First priority, find Heero... his stomach growled. Belatedly he remembered that he hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday morning. Okay, quick change of plans. First priority, find some breakfast. Then find Heero and Wufei, and head back to the safe house after picking up their Gundams. Then he was going to have a nice, long talk with the doctors...  
  
* * * * *   


It was just his luck to find Heero and Wufei in the last place imaginable. He had grabbed a cup of coffee -heavy on the cream and sugar- and several bagels smothered with cream cheese and jam at the cantina and had then proceeded to turn the fort upside down and inside out looking for his fellow pilots. He had even hacked into the system and checked to see if they had been taken prisoner. No such luck, but he had found out that Trowa and Quatre had been successful in their mission. Deciding that, after two hours of searching, he was due a break he wandered out of the fort proper. He had noticed yesterday as they entered that there was a bar conveniently located right across from the fort's entrance. A quick cold drink or two, and he would return to his search. 

The bar was several degrees cooler than the outside, which didn't say much as Duo estimated that it was well over a hundred and ten outside, and that was in the shade. It didn't bother him though. L2 was a hot colony after all, not that it was intended to be so, but broken weather systems had a tendency to do that to colonies. Of course, Duo lifted his braid off his neck a bit, it wasn't ~quite~ this hot there either. Or dry. L2, while having hardly any rain to speak of, was highly humid. A breeze right about now would be nice. The air felt like a heavy, dry blanket. There was a ceiling fan rotating the hot air inside, keeping the air from smothering the patrons, but didn't do much to cool things off. In the center of the bar was an ornate fountain made of blue and white tile with little gold koi swimming in it, which added a bit of welcomed moisture to the air. 

He stepped around the fountain on his way to the bar, and stopped in surprise as he stared at two young men sitting in front of him. Heero and Wufei? Sitting in a bar? And it looked as if they had acquired new cloths as well. Heero was wearing a blue chambre shirt, sleeves rolled up several inches to expose his forearms and a pair of stonewashed jeans. He was still wearing his sneakers. Wufei, surprisingly enough, was wearing a long-sleeved oriental styled shirt of royal purple silk. His jeans were black like Duo's and he had a new pair of black sneakers as well. He watched them for a moment, then with a cheery grin on his face he approached. 

"Hey guys!" Duo exclaimed, laying claim to the barstool next to Heero. "How's it going?" He got a matched set of withered glares for his effort. "Maxwell, after what happened yesterday, how can you be in such good cheer?" 

Duo waved at the bartender to catch his attention. "Because I'm here, the mummy is there, and now that I have found you two, we can blow this hell hole and head back to Quatre's." 

The bartender made his way over and Duo placed his order, a virgin mai tai, to Heero and Wufei's surprise. While he wasn't averse to drinking alcoholic beverages, he knew that he was a bit dehydrated from the running around he had done earlier, and alcohol would just make it worse. Besides, he was not going to fuddle his wits while in an OZ base. He may be reckless, but he was a far cry from stupid. 

"The mission has not been completed," Heero predictably said as soon as the bartender had fixed Duo's drink and had left. 

"And it's not going to, either." Duo took a long swallow of his drink. Perfect. "I'm not going back. There is nothing there I consider important enough to go back for." 

"I agree." Heero and Duo turned to Wufei. "To go back would be to die a dishonorable death." 

"Yeah..." Duo slowly nodded. Wufei's complete agreement with his idea was a bit unsettling. He had expected a little resistance. Not much, but some. Looks like Wufei had been rattled by what had happened as well. "Whatever. Mission failed. Lets put it behind us and go back to the safe house." 

"Hey, you three!" The Gundam pilots looked up as Majors Henderson and Burns approached. They looked as if they still hadn't quite recovered from yesterday's events. There was a haunted look in their eyes. 

The three pilots quickly looked at each other, then Duo turned to the OZ soldiers with a look of honest concern on his face. Burns was an OZ soldier, but he wouldn't have wished that on anybody. "How's your friend?" 

"Not good," Henderson said curtly. "How long are you three boys planning on staying here?" 

"Not long," Wufei replied, taking a sip of his drink. "Arrangements have been made for us to leave later this afternoon." 

Henderson and Daniels nodded, missing the look Heero and Duo cast Wufei at that bit of news. "You do understand everything you saw yesterday cannot be spoken about." 

"Not a prob., believe me." Duo assured him. "I am aiming on forgetting that yesterday ever happened." 

"Good," Daniels said gruffly. "See that all of you do." 

The bartender came back over and took the majors' order. Heero and Wufei were still working on their drinks, and Duo noted from the condition of the ice cubes in the drinks, had been working on them for a while now. His glass was nearly empty, so he ordered another drink. Henderson and Daniels had ordered bourbon and a whiskey neat respectively. When the drinks had arrived, Duo held his up for a toast with a cheeky grin. "May our paths never cross again." Henderson and Daniels both grinned and raised their glasses. Heero ignored them, and Wufei glared at Duo even as he lifted his glass of gin off the bar. 

"Kenpai!" Duo exclaimed, tossing his drink down as the others sipped theirs. Not even a second later, all five of them were spitting out their drinks. Around the bar other patrons were doing the same. 

"What the hell!" Henderson swore, wiping his sleeve against his mouth and glaring at his drink. "Blood!" Daniels mutely glared around the room; someone was going to pay for this. 

Wufei was swearing a blue streak; when Daniels had spat out his drink, it has splattered him. It was highly possible that if the bartender wasn't preoccupied, and understood Chinese, that Wufei would have been expelled from the bar. Heero was silently observing. It was a scientific impossibility for perfectly good drinks to spontaneously turn into blood. He glanced around the room, and noticed that even the fountain had turned red. Suspiciously he looked over at Duo. Was he somehow responsible for this? 

Duo didn't even notice the look. "Oh God," he whispered, staring at his drink in shocked horror. 

Wufei and the two majors turned to him. Suddenly Duo spun around on his barstool, his violet eyes quickly scanning the bar. He had gone quite pale, and there was a look of fear on his face that Heero and Wufei had seen only once before. Yesterday. 

"He's here, he's here," Duo murmured under his breath, still looking. 

"Who's here?" Heero demanded softly, his blue eyes burning. He had a bad suspicion he knew what his love was about to say, and that it wasn't going to be pleasant. 

" 'And the rivers and waters of Egypt went red... and were as blood.' " Duo quoted softly, turning to Heero and Wufei. "It is one of the ten plagues, like the locusts." Wufei's eyes grew wide and he quickly glanced around the bar. 

"And that means..." Henderson prompted, not understanding the plague reference but still having his own bad, sinking feeling that he knew what was about to be said. 

Duo closed his eyes and shivered. "The mummy. The mummy is here." 

The four men stared at one another for a long second as Duo's announcement sunk in and took hold, then broke for the door in a dead run. Heero had paused long enough to grab Duo -who seemed to be frozen in place- by the wrist and hauled him after him. Thus encumbered, he and Duo were the last of the group to reach the doors. 

Henderson and Daniels had disappeared from view, probably off to a private hiding place or, more likely all things considered, off to the armory. Wufei was standing just outside the doors, looking up into the sky, an intent, worried look on his face. Heero and Duo both looked up, and saw dark, almost black clouds violently rolling through the sky toward them at an alarming rate. The three pilots looked at each other, and came to an unanimous decision to run like hell to their suits. They had barely made it across the road and into the courtyard of the fort when a crack of thunder broke above them, nearly deafening them. 

"Shit!" Duo yelled, no longer in the state of panic he was in earlier. "What the hell is happening?" 

As though Duo's question was the signal, the sky opened, sending a barrage of hail and fire crashing to the ground like all the fury of the Catholic hell Duo had learned about as a child. The three pilots ran for the nearest shelter, a metal awning, being pelted by hail and dodging exploding fireballs that were the size of basketballs. 

" 'And the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire unto the lands of Egypt.' " Treize intoned from behind them. Heero and Wufei turned and looked at the older man, who was solemnly watching as his soldiers ran in panic trying to find shelter. Duo, totally caught up in what he was seeing before him, didn't even notice. 

"Cool," he breathed out as a fireball hit a car parked on the other side of the courtyard from them. It burst into flames and exploded, sending the nearby people screaming as bits of flaming metal poured down upon them even as they dodged fireballs and hail. This was the most incredible thing he had ever seen. Heero, Wufei and Treize all turned and stared at the braided pilot. 

"Baka," Heero growled, socking Duo in the back of the head. "Be serious." 

"Hey," Duo complained, rubbing the sore spot and turning to Heero. He immediately saw the look in Heero's eyes. Pushing him right now just may result in a broken bone at the very least, and possibly a bullet hole to boot. 

"So this is another of the plagues?" 

Duo turned to Wufei, a Shinigami grin plastered across his face, "Yeah, nice display, ne?" 

"Duo..." 

The hail and fire suddenly stopped falling. The four men blinked, and Duo, ever the curious one, stuck his head out. 

"Looks like the fun is all over, it's clearing up." And indeed it was. The rolling clouds seemed to collapse upon themselves and faded from view. Heero wisely avoided looking at Duo, Wufei ground his teeth, and Treize was totally lost as to what was going on with the three Gundam pilots. He quickly decided that he probably didn't want to know. 

A silence filled the courtyard, the sounds of the fire and ice storm gone, and all people now safely within the buildings, and the earth herself seemed to have stopped breathing. Even the crackling of the car fire was muted into silence. The only sound heard was the soft whisper of their breaths as they looked around, trying to figure out what to do next. 

Then an unearthly scream of raw pain and soul shriveling terror tore through the silence, sending shivers of ice running down the spines of all those who heard it. 

"Over there," Heero motioned with his head in the direction of some of the guest quarters, and the four men were off running to an outside staircase some thirty yards to their left. On the way up the narrow stairs they nearly ran over a man who was running down the stairs at a pace that matched theirs. He gave them a quick look, adverted his eyes and quickly ran the rest of the way down. Heero locked the man's features in his mind from habit and continued up the stairs. The doorway ahead of them on the balcony was wide open and he stopped at the entrance and cautiously looked in, gun in hand. He saw nothing from the doorway and entered. 

Once inside the room, his view was better, distressingly so. Now he was inside, he could easily see the desiccated corpse of Major Burns sitting in a chair, a look of intense terror frozen on his face. 

Duo rushed into the room behind him, eyes quickly scanning the area. He saw the corpse, and the breath caught in his throat. 

"Dear God," Treize whispered in shock. He and Wufei had entered the room right behind Duo. He, unlike the three pilots, was not staring at the remains of Major Burns. His gaze was locked upon, as the gazes of the Gundam pilots soon were, on the dark-cloaked form standing in a shadow on the far side of the room. 

The robe slid off, revealing the rotted form of the mummy they had left in Hamanaptra. Its skin seemed to roll, and his captive audience watched in horror as its rotted flesh began to renew itself before their eyes. New muscles filled out the skeletal form, the bullet holes in its upper torso vanished before their very eyes to be replaced by fresh, gray skin. 

"I'm gonna be sick," Duo said in a strangled voice, trying not to gag and failing as he hid behind Heero. 

The mummy gave one long stretch, as though waking up from a long nap, and turned to face its visitors. Its gaze quickly flicked from person to person, from Treize to Wufei, then Heero before stopping at Duo. Duo swallowed nervously at the recognition in the mummy's eyes at it saw him and grabbed the back of Heero's shirt tightly. 

"Heero..." 

The mummy started toward them, a bit shaky at first as its balance adjusted to its new bulk but more quickly with each step. 

"Omae o korosu," Heero said flatly, emptying his clip in the mummy as he had the day before. Unlike the day before, though, the gunshots did not affect the mummy. Duo released Heero's shirt and scurried across the room at an angle, getting out of the way. (And incidentally making his way toward the window for a fast escape should the situation called for it.) Behind Heero Treize was stepping back to the door and Wufei had drawn his sword. 

His gun obviously useless, Heero discarded it and attacked. With a move so swift that mortal eyes could not follow, Heero directed a fatal blow into the mummy's chest. His face twisted with disgust as his hand made contact, and then sank into the rotted flesh and bone. The mummy roared its displeasure as Heero withdrew his hand with a sucking sound. There was the sound of gagging as the assembled men watched as the area around the bloodless wound Heero made started to deteriorate, to rot and decay to the bone. Before anyone could act, the mummy roared its displeasure and grabbed Heero by the front of his shirt, and with surprising strength, threw him into the others, then turned its gaze to Duo.   
  
* * * * *   


Henderson and Daniels were madly running to Burns' quarters. They had left the bar at a dead run, knowing that if the braided kid was right, and the mummy was in fact here, that it was going to be after them. If that was the case, they were not going down without a fight. Which was why they had braved hail and fire to reach their quarters, to arm themselves. 

It had taken mere minutes to grab their guns and stow extra clips in their pockets. By the time they were finished, the short, violent storm was over. By mutual, unspoken agreement, they went to get Burns. There was no way he could defend himself from the mummy in the condition he was in. They had picked up their pace when they heard the most horrifying scream they had ever heard, and from Burns' direction. Daniels reached for his gun as they spun around the corner, then stopped dead in his tracks. Ahead of him, staring up at Burns' room was a thin, weaselish man in black pajama type clothing and a red fez. 

"Slimy little son-of-a-bitch!" Daniels spat, raising his gun. 

"Daniels!" Henderson gasped, striking Daniels hand, sending his shot wild. 

"Dammit Henderson! Why the hell did you do that?" Daniels yelled. Henderson looked ahead and saw Benni looking at them in fear, before he spun and ran off. 

"Shit!" Henderson spat. Benni wasn't much to look at, but when he decided to move, he was gone. "Damn little weasel." Then they realized something. "Burns!" The two Americans sprinted across the road and pounded up the stairs to the open door ahead of them. They raced through the door, one after another, just in time to be knocked to the floor.  
  
* * * * *   


Duo watched in growing fear as Heero flew though the air, crashing into Wufei and Treize, then into the two majors who just entered the room. Then, like a frightened deer, Duo's gaze turned to the approaching mummy. It was so much like his dream Slowly he backed against the wall, knowing that there was no way he could reach the window in time, and that in all likelihood it wouldn't have mattered if he had. He reached behind him and began tugging on his shirt, pulling it out of his jeans. The mummy smiled at him during its approach, giving Duo an unwelcomed look at its blackened teeth and fresh pink tongue and began to speak. Duo, while grown up on L2, had picked up a passing command of quite a few languages. 

Unfortunately, ancient Egyptian wasn't one of them. 

While the soft, musical words were incomprehensible to the American pilot, the infliction in which they were delivered was not. Neither was the soft look in the mummy's eyes as it gazed upon him. 

_Shit!_ Duo swallowed and gripped the comforting weight of his gun. Heero's gun hadn't stopped the mummy this time around, but his was loaded with exploding rounds, which should cause enough damage to slow the mummy down long enough for him to make a break for the door. As the mummy started to lean over Duo, his intent seemed to be to ~_kiss_~ Duo, Duo kicked off the safety and started to bring his gun around. In the distance he could hear the others yelling as they tried to untangle themselves, predicable yells, 'Move your elbow, dammit! That's my face!' 'Watch what you are doing!' 'Careful of the sword!' and of course, 'Omae o korosu." 

The mummy whispered a name, the same one he had called Duo the day before, Anck-su-namun, as it leaned even closer, lips parted. Behind the mummy Heero and Wufei doubled their efforts to free themselves of the mass of humanity they were caught in. Duo braced himself, sliding the gun along his side and aiming it at the mummy. This was going to be nasty. He was going to have rotted mummy guts all over his new shirt. Softly he whispered a quick prayer to whoever was listening, and started to tighten his finger on the trigger. Then from the door came an unexpected sound. The soft questioning meow of a cat.  
  
* * * * *   


Little Black, as she was sometimes called, was one of the several dozen cats that called Fort Brydon home. While none of them technically 'belonged' to any person, the permanent residents of the fort considered the cats theirs, and always set food out for them and made sure they were not harassed. In return, the cats soaked up hot Egyptian sun, looked pretty as they lay around the buildings, occasionally allowed someone to pet them, and ate any stray mice that had the misfortune to wander into the fort by accident. It was a good arrangement, one that all involved could live with. 

Today had not been a good day for Little Black. She had been the runt of her litter, and as a result was quite small, even for a half-grown cat. For her, getting food has always been a challenge. And she wasn't a very good mouser either, so no supplementing there. Today she hadn't gotten a scrap to eat for breakfast. Then came that weird storm, and one of the fireballs had nearly hit her! The indignity of it! 

At the moment, she was back on the major concern of her short life. Food. Since she was in the area, she decided to check and see if there was any new activity in the guest quarters. New guests were always an easy mark for a sad kitten. And right before her on the covered walkway, was an open door. The Great Lady must be smiling down upon her. Softly she padded over to the door and looked in.  
  
* * * * *   


The mummy spun around and faced the door as though the most terrifying thing in existence had just appeared. Duo just stared as a look of sheer horror swept across the rotted face at the sight of the small black cat standing in the doorway. Upon seeing (and smelling) the mummy, the cat arched her back and spat fiercely at the creature before her. The mummy gave an ear-piercing screech, nearly shattering eardrums and windows alike. A strong gust of wind suddenly tore through the room, circling the mummy, who had stepped away from Duo, to his great relief. The wind grew even stronger, and the mummy started to crumble, then to Duo's amazement, turned completely into sand and blew its way out of the window he had been heading for. Silence. Not a sound was heard, except for the muffled oaths and scuffs from the group at the door. Duo slid down the wall limply, his knees haven given away, his gun held loosely in his lap. Quietly he watched as the three men and the two teenagers finally separated themselves, everyone but Treize glaring furiously at each other. Then Henderson and Daniels stumbled over to their friend, the friend they had been too late to save. They stared at his body, the realization that this was probably going to happen to them as well sinking into their thoughts. 

Heero and Wufei, with Treize following close behind, walked over to Duo. 

"Daijobu ka?" 

Duo nodded slowly. "Hai. Daijobu." He rested his head against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. "Why the hell is that damn thing after me?" 

"I believe it has a crush on you." 

Heero, Duo and Wufei all turned to Treize, who had come up behind them. Unlike the rest of them, he had emerged from the scuffle at the door without even a hair out of place. Heero's shirt had lost half of its buttons during the struggle and was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, a nice display that Duo wasn't in the shape to appreciate, and Wufei had broke his hair tie, causing his hair to fall around his face. Both majors had ripped clothing, and Henderson was sporting what would soon be a dandy of a black eye. Daniels was favoring his injured shoulder, which by some miracle hadn't started to bleed from the rough treatment. 

"A crush," Wufei repeated, looking over at Duo, eyebrow arched. Only Maxwell.

"Oooooohhhh..." Duo moaned, closing his eyes. Why him? Heero was not consoling his poor, suffering love at this increadable revelation, however. He was staring at Treize with ice-cold blue eyes. "You understood what it said?" His voice was as cold as his eyes. Treize turned to Heero, not at all phased by the look he receive or the tone of voice he was using. 

"Some. I am by no means fluent in the language, but I have passed time studying ancient Egyptian. 

"What will we do, General?" Daniels had left the corpse of his friend and came over to see what was happening with the teenagers. Not that he cared what happened to the teenagers, but it seemed that the mummy was not interested in killing at least one of them, while it was all out to nail him and his two friends. 

Treize looked around the room thoughtfully. His eyes skimmed over Major Henderson, who was slumped on the floor next to the corpse of his friend. Heero was standing -protectively it seemed- next to Duo. It wasn't noticeable unless someone was looking for it. He filed away that bit of information away. Not to use against them, he had great respect for the five pilots, just because he wanted to know them better, and knew that this would probably be his only chance before they became enemies again. Finally his gaze fell on Wufei, looking absolutely adorable with his hair down. The only pilot he knew well, and he knew that he had barely scratched the surface of who Chang Wufei really was. Wufei, despite how he acted earlier, cared about the other pilots and was worried about Duo. Treize couldn't blame him for that. He was worried about all of them. What to do? They had to stop the mummy, and he was reluctant to bring in any outside help. He had three Gundam pilots with him. It was a bit galling, knowing that if they couldn't stop this creature, that no one else had a hope to succeed. But they needed to know what they were up against, what they could expect, what weapons they could use against this creature. And there was only one way that he could find that out, only one person who could tell him what they needed to know. 

"I know of someone who may be able to aid us in this matter..." Treize said slowly. "Is there anyone who objects to a trip into Cairo?"  
  
* * * * *   


The Hummer pulled up in front of the Museum of Antiquities without encountering any difficulties. The Hummer had not been the first choice of vehicles to use, smacking of military and all; it had been their only choice. When Treize had commissioned a vehicle to use, he had found out that a good number of the vehicles belonging to the fort had been severely damaged or destroyed by the hail and fireballs. The garage had even been set on fire. The remaining vehicles were either not large enough to seat a party of six, not counting the driver, or were too conspicuous, which left as their only choice a topless Hummer. Splitting up into two different groups wasn't even discussed. 

The driver, a nameless private whose sole purpose was to drive the car, placed the vehicle into park and hopped out to open the door for Treize. Henderson and Daniels climbed out of the rear seats, and the Gundam pilots climbed out of the tail. 

"Sugee..." Duo breathed once his feet were on the ground. He was looking up at the two huge statues flanking the doors of the museum. "So this is where they keep all the mummies and gold, ne?" He rearranged the small cat perched on his shoulders to look over at Treize. "Where all the loot from the Valley of the Kings is stored?" 

Treize smiled softly at his enthusiasm. The American pilots actions were quite endearing and he was growing quite fond of the energetic young man. But it would be wise to remember that this young man was the pilot of Gundam 02, one of the most destructive and deadly Gundams his forces had to face. "Some of it." Only a small amount, actually. Most of the treasures were kept in a secure, underground vault several miles out in the desert. 

"Cool..." Duo breathed. "Lets go!" Duo, one hand supporting the cat, ran off to the entrance. The rest of the group, most who where sweating in the high heat, watched his enthusiasm and energy in disbelief. 

"That stupid kid is going to get us all killed." Daniels growled as the rest of the small group made their way to the entrance. Duo was no longer in sight. Heero and Wufei refrained from commenting, they had put up with Duo for so long that little things like this didn't bother them any, providing, of course, it didn't directly involve them. 

Duo was waiting for them in the foyer. He had been looking around impatiently, wondering when the rest would get there, and also wondering where all the tourists were. The building seemed empty, and he knew that this was a major tourist attraction. People love looking at dead mummies. Several minutes later, the rest of the group entered the building, sighing in relief as they entered the air-conditioned room. Duo bounced over to them. "Okay General, where to now?" he asked perkily, causing the two majors to glare at him. His joviality in such a dire, life or death situation was not improving their mood one bit. 

Treize glanced around the room, and then strode off toward a hallway. "This was, if you would," and Treize started leading the small party through the museum, past gallery displays of the Pharaohs of Egypt and their belongings. Heero grabbed Duo's braid halfway through the first display, using it like a leash, hauling Duo along as he paused to stare at this wonder or other.

After quite a few twists and turns, the small group found themselves at the back of the museum, at the administration offices. The outer office was empty, not a soul in sight. The soldiers glanced around watchfully; the entire museum had a deserted feeling to it that was bothering them. Several of the more twitchy members of the group (Henderson and Daniels) placed their hands close to their firearms, in case they were needed. 

"Where is everyone?" Duo finally asked, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the room.

"Maxwell..." Wufei hissed; his voice fading away quickly at the sound of a slight creek to the right as the door to the curator's office slowly opened. Henderson and Daniels immediately pulled their guns out and aimed them at the figure that appeared in the doorway. Large gold eyes behind metal frame glasses grew wide as a soft gasp escaped from the teenage girl standing before them. Treize took in her youth and her outfit; a short sleeved white blouse with a lacy collar, denim Capri jeans that had just come back into style, and brown and white oxfords with lace trimmed socks. Her long blond hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, tied back with a green scarf and she was clutching an armful of papers to her chest. He lowered his head slightly; they had just pulled guns on a research student working at the museum. 

"Uhh... Can I help you?" she asked in a small, nervous voice, eyes locked on the two guns. 

As Henderson and Daniels put their guns away, Treize gave the girl his most charming smile. "Pardon us miss, for this intrusion. We had not intended to surprise you so." 

"Ahh... I see." The girl gave the two majors and Treize a cautious look, noting their uniforms and rank insignia, then smiled faintly. The smile didn't last long, as a thoughtful look quickly replaced it. "How did you get in here?" She asked crisply. "The museum has been closed for the day." 

"The notice on the front proclaimed that closing was at eight," Wufei pointed out. The girl turned to him and smiled lightly him. 

"Well, we closed early today, due to...bad weather." 

"Oh yeah, I can see that happening," Duo commented, nodding his head in complete understanding. Unlike the others, who were still standing, Duo had made himself comfortable on a nearby desk. Heero was standing next to him, and Little Black was helping herself to the remains of a tuna sandwich that was on a plate at the far side of the desk. The girl turned to him, humor shining in her gold eyes. 

"Quite." She then gave them all a studying look, as though she was trying to see something about them. "Now, I don't suppose you can tell me why you braved such weather to come to the museum?" 

"A matter of grave importance, young lady." Treize said softly. "My companions and I must speak with Dr. Allen Collins." 

The girl walked forward and sat her papers on the desk next to Duo. "I'm afraid you made your trip for nothing, General. Dr. Collins is lecturing in Oxford this week. But I am his assistant, Sefic Carnahan. Maybe I can be of some assistance?" 

Silence filled the room as everyone stared at the girl. Could she know something useful?

"My dear young lady," Treize gave her a steady look. "What do you know of Hamanaptra?" It was a loaded question. If she knew what was generally known, she would be of no use to them, and they would go on their way. If she did know something, however... 

Sefic blinked, then began to speak. "Hamanaptra is an ancient mythical city of the nineteenth dynasty, legendary resting place of the princes of Egypt and storehouse of the wealth of Egypt. Treasure hunters have been searching for it for thousands of years, but no one has even been able to prove that it exists, let alone a location." 

Treize sighed in relief inside. She knew nothing; he would not have to involve this innocent girl in such a grave matter. 

Duo did not let it rest though. "So, do you know anything else about it?" he prompted, not sure why he was asking. "Mummies hanging there, curses, plagues, little things like that?" 

"Wha..." Sefic started, and then quickly closed her mouth. She gave Duo a searching look, then her eyes flicked over to the kitten sitting next to him. Silently she rubbed the kitten on the head. Little Black began to purr. 

"You've been to Hamanaptra." It was a quietly spoken statement, not a question. She raised her hand and turned to them, a solemn look on her face. "It was you who awoke He Who Shall Not Be Named."  
  
* * * * *   


The six soldiers followed Sefic as she led them through the museum. After her startling statement, she had refused to say anything else on the subject until they moved to what she thought would be a more appropriate location to speak of such matters. Heero had not been happy about it, happiness being in short supply for him for the past two days, but under the Gundam pilots current disguise there was no way he could argue with her. A quick glance over at Treize showed that he, as well, wanted to know what she knew, but as a consummate gentleman he was following her desire. 

Heero grabbed tighter to Duo's braid as he once again began to lag behind. For some reason, he was drawn to all the ancient Egyptian artifacts on display. To Heero, it was just so much stuff. They were dead, what was so great about them that they and their belongings were put on public display. Heero cursed softly to himself as he nearly tripped on a small object running around his feet. That was something else that he wasn't happy about. Duo's insistence on bringing that scrawny, half-grown feline with them, saying that ~he~ had scared the mummy away. No one really gave much credit to Duo's claim, and the cat was insignificant enough that no one had wanted to argue with him about it at the time. He had started minding sometime during the drive to the museum, right around the time Duo started calling it 'Hee-chan'. Things had not gotten any better. He refrained from swearing once more as he nearly tripped over the kitten and gave it a good glare. The kitten, whom he was not going to refer to by the ridiculous name that Duo had given him, gave him a feline smirk, then ran up to the front of the group. 

"Here we are," Sefic announced softly. Heero looked around. They were in a well-lit, large room with a skylight. On display were several mummies, their coffins and various other items that they were buried with. She motioned to one of the mummies on display. 

"This is the Pharaoh Rameses." 

"Moses' school buddy." Duo added in. Sefic looked over at him strangely for a moment, a small smile fighting to show; then nodded. 

"Yes. It was he who affronted the God of the Israelites, who sent the legendary plagues onto Egypt." 

She turned away from the desiccated corpse and came to stand next to another glass case, also displaying a mummy, before continuing on her history lesson. "And this is his father, Seti the First, one of the greatest Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty." The six men looked at the mummy, lying on a yellow cloth, face unwrapped, and generally looking like the old, dried out corpse that it was. 

"Can't even tell he got stabbed several dozen times, can you?" she asked lightly as she seated herself on an ornate throne once belonging to said mummy. "His death was quite dramatic," she wrinkled her nose, "and messy as well, but now he rests peacefully, unlike his closest friend and advisor, his ultimate betrayer, the High Priest of Osiris, Imhotep." 

"Really?" Duo asked, getting into this ancient history thing. "What happened to him?" 

Sefic lowered her head slightly. "For his crimes against Pharaoh and the Gods themselves, he was sentenced to endure the hom-dai, the most dreaded curse known. The Med-jai," she lifted her head and stared straight at them, "Pharaoh's bodyguards, swore that they and their descendants would guard his resting place, so that none would disturb it, so that the creature he had become would never walk the land of man again!" She gave them all an accusatory glare. "Then you came along and released it!" 

"They did it!" Duo quickly, and accurately, put the blame on Henderson and Daniels. This was not something he wanted to take the fall for. "The rest of us were innocent bystanders who got sucked into this mess. It is all ~their~ fault!" 

"It does not matter to whom the blame falls at this point," Treize stated softly, giving the majors, who were glaring at Duo, a speaking glance. "What has happened has happened. What we must do now is find a way to stop this creature and prevent it from taking any more lives." 

"Well, I wanna know why it's afraid of cats." Duo looked over at his kitten, which was playfully batting around Sefic's shoelaces. "The mummy made like a bat out of hell when he showed up." 

"Hmm..." Sefic bent over and picked up the kitten, which immediately started to purr. "Her," she murmured. "She is a female kitten." Duo shrugged. "As to why he fled; cats are the favored animal of Bastet, daughter of Ra. They are the guardians of the underworld. He Who Shall Not Be Named shall fear all cats until He has fully regenerated and is whole. Then He shall fear nothing, and nothing will be able to stop Him. 

"No shit!" Daniels stepped forward, gesturing with his gun. "And we don't need some schoolgirl descendant of a bodyguard to tell us how that dead bastard is doing that! 

"Yeah," Henderson said softly, playing with his gun. "By killing everyone who opened that God damned chest!" 

"By sucking us dry!" Daniels finished for him in an angry rush. 

"Quick on the uptake for OZ soldiers, aren't they?" Duo said to Heero, earning him another hard glare from both majors. Treize cleared his throat and gave them both a look that said that they had better toe the line, or else. As Duo had said, they were both quick on the uptake. 

"I am curious about something as well." Wufei hid a sly smile from everyone. "Why would Imhotep be interested in Maxwell?" 

"What?" Sefic said in alarm, her accent fading to near nothing, looking from face to face. "What are you talking about?" 

Henderson snapped his fingers, "Yeah, that's right. The mummy did seem to be on a very ~_friendly_~ footing with the kid." 

Both Heero and Duo glared at Henderson. Sefic was still frowning, looking from person to person in hopes of an explanation. "Friendly? What do you mean by 'friendly'? Would someone please explain?" 

"It seems that the mummy has developed a bit of a fascination for Duo," Treize explained. "When we encountered it earlier, it displayed a marked show of affection. Gentle looks, endearments, and I do believe the creature was about to kiss Duo when the kitten appeared." 

Sefic shuddered in horror, but then frowned in thought. 

"And it called me some name too," Duo grumbled. "Anac-su-namune or something like that." 

Sefic stiffened. "Anck-su-namun?" she repeated, changing the pronunciation slightly. Duo nodded. "Yeah, that's it. The mummy called me that twice now." Sefic leaned back in the throne, a sad, faraway look in her eyes. "Unbelievable," she whispered, her accent prominent again as the shock from finding out about Imhotep's interest in Duo faded. "After all these years, after suffering unspeakable torture and torment, he still loves her." 

"What?" Heero demanded. 

"Anck-su-namun was Seti's favored mistress, and the love of Imhotep's life. For her he betrayed Pharaoh and gods alike, for her that he was cursed." 

Wufei snorted. "For his acts it is justice that he was punished." 

"You can always involve justice into something, can you Wu." 

"Without justice there is nothing." 

"Uhh..." Henderson stared at the teenagers. "What about the mummy." 

"This is just what we needed." Everyone turned to Sefic, whose eyes were gleaming with excitement. "He Who Shall Not Be Named shall try to raise Anck-su-namun from the dead again. This will give us the time we need to find a way to stop him." 

"How will he do that?" Heero demanded suspiciously. From what he had gathered from the available information, Duo was apparently going to be playing some part in the mistress' rebirth. He had a bad feeling he wasn't going to like what Sefic was going to say. 

He was right. 

"By human sacrifice, to replace the organs secreted in the five sacred canopic jars." 

"Human sacrifice?" Wufei whispered, appalled. Sefic nodded. "Yes, and it seems that," she turned to Duo, "He Who Shall Not Be Named has already chosen his sacrifice." 

The room fell silent as everyone turned and stared at Duo. 

"Tough break kid," Henderson said, not sincere in the slightest bit. 

"Nani!" Duo squeaked, his skin a chalky white. "Me!" 

"As if things could not become any worse," Treize murmured, giving the American pilot a sympathetic look. 

"No," Sefic shook her head. "As I said, this just might be lucky for us." 

"Nani!?" all three Gundam pilots exclaimed. 

"Yes," Sefic nodded thoughtfully, lost in thought. "You see, it will take time for the creature to prepare for the sacrifice, time that we can use. Time to find a way to stop him." 

"What about _The Book of the Dead_?" Daniels asked Sefic, almost politely. "It brought that slimy bastard back, can we kill him with it?" 

"Hmmm..." She gave him a thoughtful look. "Possibly; if we had the book. But I must tell you, nothing has been written that I know of that actually states that it can do so." She shrugged. "Most of those who know of the book don't even know that it can bring the dead back to life." 

Everyone was silent as they thought about it. It was a slim chance, but it was the only one they had. They had to get the book. While they were thinking, one by one they noticed that the room was growing darker. The light bulbs still lit the room, but the light from the skylight was dimming rapidly. They looked up, and watched as the moon swallowed the sun. 

" 'And he stretched forth his hand toward the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt.' " Sefic whispered softly, her fingers unconsciously reaching to her neck where her fingers started to play with an Egyptian style cat amulet. 

"He is getting stronger," Heero noted in a low voice. "We will have to hurry."  
  
* * * * *   


For the umpteenth time since their arrival, Quatre looked out of the window overlooking the courtyard. From the sky above, faint rays of sunlight were slowly beginning to reappear; the eclipse was apparently over. 

"I do wish I knew what was going on," he fretted, his fingers playing with the thin material of the opaque curtains. 

"Eclipses do occur," Trowa was seated at the settee, watching Quatre fretting and wondering just why they were called here. 

"Not unpredicted, they don't," Quatre pointed out, turning to Trowa. "The next full eclipse for this area is not for another ten years. And nothing I can think of can explain that storm when we arrived." 

Trowa said nothing, what could he say? Storms that showered fire and ice were not something he knew of. 

"I have this bad feeling." The delicate Arabian placed his hand on his chest. "My uchuu no kokoro is telling me something is dreadfully wrong." He turned and looked back out the window. "Maybe I shouldn't have disregarded Duo's worries about the mission. Maybe something has happened out there. Something had to have happened, for Heero to send for us." 

Trowa repressed a sigh. Quatre had been worried about their three friends since yesterday afternoon, sure that something had happened with their mission. His certainty had only grown stronger as time went by. 

There hadn't been much that they could do the day before, immersed in their own mission, but Heero had a message waiting for them when they arrived back at the safe house. 

As was typical of a message from Heero, it was blunt and too the point. The mission had been compromised, and they needed backup. They were to immediately to leave for Cairo, disregarding any missions from the Doctors, and meet with them at Fort Brydon. The message created more questions than it answered, and what could have happened that was so urgent that it preceded any other mission? 

They had arrived at the fort in mid-afternoon, after leaving their Gundams in an underground hanger near the Winner's Cairo mansion. Heero had left them a message at the fort, telling them to wait in his and Duo's suite, and not to leave until he, Duo and Wufei returned. That was well over an hour ago. 

"OZ," Trowa said flatly. 

Quatre turned away from the window again. "Hmm?" 

"OZ may have recovered the book first. Why else gain access to the fort?" 

"But as guests?" Quatre protested. That had surprised them both when they found out about it, and they still could not figure out the why or how they had managed it. 

The sound of a vehicle coming to a stop outside the window drew Quatre's attention to it again. He pushed aside the curtain slightly and glanced out, then gasped. 

"Treize Khushrenada!" he exclaimed softly. "What is he doing here?" 

"A good question," Trowa replied calmly, coming to stand at Quatre's side. Fort Brydon was not strategically important, not like the two bases Wufei had pointed out as they went over this mission. Also, all intelligence stated that Khushrenada was in France, and was going to remain there for the next two weeks. They watched as Treize dismissed the driver and turned to watch as two OZ majors exited from the Hummer. 

"Do you think that they know that we are here?" Quatre whispered, his hand going cautiously to his gun. Before Trowa had a chance to answer his love, the sight of Wufei exiting the vehicle caught both him and Quatre by surprise. Their surprise was more because of how he was dressed and how his hair was hanging loose than him apparently being taken captive. Still in silence, they watched as Duo and Heero exited the vehicle, following Wufei up to the front where the three OZ officers were standing. 

"They have not been captured," Trowa commented after several moments of watching the scene below. He frowned slightly. No guns were in evidence, nor were their friends being restrained in any way. It looked to any who cared to look, that they were there of their own free will. 

The two pilots watched in puzzled silence as their three friends and the three OZ officers conferred with each other for several minutes. After what looked to be a slightly heated discussion and an order from Treize, the two OZ majors marched off. Treize, Heero, Duo and Wufei watched them until they were out of view; then started for the stairs to the second floor

"They are coming up here," Quatre whispered, letting the curtain fall back in place. 

"Ah," Trowa said in reply, drawing his gun. Even if it didn't look as though the others were prisoners, there was no need to take chances. Quatre quickly glanced at the gun in Trowa's hand and nodded, drawing his own. Silently they took their positions, listening to the soft sounds of approaching footsteps and muted voices.  
  
* * * * *   


"Those jerks had better not screw up," Duo muttered darkly. "If they can't get Chamberlin and the book here, we're all fucked," 

"Do not worry Duo," Treize said, wincing slightly at the teenager's choice of language. "They have a great motivator driving them to do their best." 

"Hmph! They fear only for their own lives," Wufei said scathingly. "Imoteph's plans for the world mean nothing to them." 

"Hey!" Duo protested. "I am rather fond of my life as well, you know. Getting sliced up to bring back a mummy's dead girl is not how I planned on going." 

"It won't happen," Heero said shortly. He glanced at the door, nodded to himself and opened the door. "He will be stopped." 

The four men entered the room, closing the door behind them. A soft click off to one side, a near imperceptible sound, caught the attention of the three Gundam pilots and they all made for their assorted collection of concealed weapons. 

"Heero," a soft voice came from the shadows. They turned and watched as Trowa appeared, gun drawn and pointed at Treize. He glanced at each of the pilots, acknowledging them silently.

"Are you guys okay?" a second voice asked. Duo and Wufei were not as surprised to see Quatre step out of the bedroom as they had to see Trowa. It was almost expected, in fact. Quatre, like Trowa, had his gun drawn and pointed at Treize. 

This did not seem to bother Treize any, as though he was use to having guns pointed at him all the time. He arched an eyebrow and glanced over at the silent pilot of Gundam 01. "Reinforcements?" he queried softly. 

Heero and Trowa were the only two to hear the softly spoken question, and neither had the chance to respond, as Duo had yelled out Quatre's name and lunged at him. Little Black bailed for the floor, and it was all Quatre could do to keep from dropping his gun as a frantic Duo latched onto him. "Man, am I ever glad to see you! You have no idea what we have been through, and the next time you make cracks about stupid curses I'm gonna knock your lights out!" 

"Nan desu ka?" Quatre urgently turned to Heero and Wufei, all the while trying to pry the American pilot off of him. 

"I see they have yet to be briefed on the situation." With a soft sigh, Treize gracefully seated himself in a chair. "It would be advisable for them to be brought up to date on the current situation before Major Henderson and Major Daniels return with Professor Chamberlin." 

Trowa glanced away from Treize to lock eyes with Quatre, who was getting nowhere with removing Duo. Puzzled green met confused blue. Just what was going on here? "What is going on here?" Quatre commanded. 

"There's a mummy out to get me!" Duo wailed, clinging harder to Quatre. "Hamanaptra is cursed, and OZ released a mummy, and it wants to rip my guts out!" 

"Duo," Quatre said gently, his smile slightly strained. Duo clinging to him like this brought back unpleasant memories of the last time Duo clung to him in a panic, babbling wild stories. "Curses are not real. All that talk about Hamunaptra being cursed are old stories to scare children. It is just an old ruin." Wufei snorted and Quatre turned to him, recalling Wufei's reaction on first hearing about the curse. "Don't you agree?" 

"Only children are frightened of stories," Wufei intoned softly. "But even grown men can fear the living undead." 

That was not the response Quatre had been looking for. And it was highly unexpected as well. His blue eyes hardened slightly. "Did something happen that you want to tell us about?" 

"Duo has pretty well covered the situation," Treize announced, much to Quatre's surprise. "In its direct relationship to him, of course. There are a few other particulars, but those can be gotten into at a later date." 

Quatre and Trowa stared silently at Treize for a moment, then as one turned to Heero. He didn't believe in curses, he would tell them what was going on. Heero's Prussian blue eyes were deadly serious as he began to speak. "A fraction of OZ has brought the High Priest Imhotep back from the dead. He is in the process of hunting down those who did so, and has chosen Duo as a human sacrifice to bring his dead lover back from the dead so they can take over the world." 

Everyone was silent for a moment, then Quatre's knees gave out and he sank to the floor, bringing Duo with him. "Not again!" he moaned, covering his face with his hands, trying to block out flashbacks from several months ago. "I can't take going through another situation like this again." He raised his head and gave Duo an accusatory glare. "Duo, why do these things keep happening to you?!?" 

"It's not my fault!" Duo wailed. "I didn't ask for a mummy to make passes at me. I didn't even want to come here, remember?" 

"So we fight a mummy," Trowa said softly. Sometime during Quatre's collapse, he had put his gun away and had come to aid Quatre in pealing Duo off of him. "I take it he is responsible for the strange occurrences?" 

"Yes," Treize said, curious eyes on Duo and Quatre. What did they mean, a similar situation? What have these boys been involved in? "With his reawakening, he has brought with him the ten ancient plagues of Egypt. We have already experienced two of them." 

"Three," Wufei corrected, thinking of what had happened at the bar earlier. 

"Four," Duo whispered from where he was seated on the floor next to Quatre. He had finally released the blond Arabian. 

Just then the door burst open, sending the five Gundam pilots reaching for their guns. It was a move that only an idiot or someone highly preoccupied would have missed. The new arrivals qualified on both counts. 

"He is gone! His room is empty and no one has seen Professor Chamberlin since last evening!" Henderson exclaimed as he rushed into the room with Daniels right behind him. He stopped abruptly upon seeing the two new additions to the group. "Who are these kids?" he demanded. 

Duo glared up at him. "Our friends." 

"They come to pick you three up?" Daniels asked, closing the door behind him. He gave the two boys quick looks. "Kids, you have bad timing." 

Treize frowned, looking at those assembled before him. "This is no good. Chamberlin and _The Book of the Dead_ are our only hope of stopping Imhotep." To one side Quatre mouthed '_Book of the Dead?'_ to Trowa, who shook his head slightly. "We will have to find him and bring him and the book back to the fort." 

Henderson glared around the room, eyeing each of the five teenagers before taking a seat. For some reason, they made him nervous. "Professor Chamberlin has an office here in Cairo, off of one of the alleys in the bazaar quarter. He could have gone back there to hide out." 

"Fine," Treize murmured. "Then you and Major Daniels shall go there and retrieve him and the book." 

"No sir." Daniels stood up straight. "No disrespect meant sir, but there is no way I am leaving the safety of this fort." 

"Real safe for your friend, wasn't it?" Duo pointed out sarcastically. He promptly received two glares for his efforts. Wufei snorted. 

"You are one to talk, Maxwell." Duo paled slightly at the reminder, and slid a little closer to Heero. Quatre and Trowa exchanged quick looks at Duo's action. 

Meanwhile, Treize had been giving the two majors a thoughtful look. "You may be correct. Sending the two of you off base would not be a wise course of action." As Wufei had stated earlier, the two majors were interested only in their own well-being. They might go off on their own and try to stop the mummy themselves. Or, more than likely, flee with the book to their master. As one of the two sacred books hidden at Hamunaptra for safekeeping, it would not do to take chances with it. The book falling into the hands of the Gundam pilots would be preferable over the book falling into certain fractions of OZ. "As the two of you are potential targets for Imhotep, we should keep you where you would be the safest." Under his and the Gundam pilot's watchful care. 

"Trowa and I will go," Heero announced, which didn't really surprise the rest of the pilots. "What is the address," he demanded of Henderson. 

Somewhat surprised at the tone of voice that Heero was using, he told the teenager the address. "Are you sure it's safe for you kids to do this?" Henderson asked with belated concern. They were kids after all. "The mummy will make short work of you if it catches you." 

Heero locked cold blue eyes on Henderson. "It has no reason to come after Trowa and I." He did a quick mental review of the location of Professor Chamberlin's office. "We should return in little over an hour." 

"What about me?" Duo asked, looking around the room. "I'm not gonna wait here for Imhotep to return! I am going with you!" 

Heero turned and gave Duo a level look. His eyes narrowed in thought, then the next thing anyone knew, Heero was throwing Duo into the bedroom and shutting the twin doors. 

"HEY!" Duo yelled, diving for the handles and pulling on them with all his might. They didn't budge. "Don't lock me in here!" 

Heero, still holding the doors shut, calmly turned the key in the lock and then handed it to Quatre. Then, without changing expressions, he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his cloths and fastened them to the door handles. He turned to Quatre. "No one goes in, no one goes out." Quatre nodded, putting the key in the pocket of his vest. 

"Heero! Don't you fucking leave me locked in here!" The doors shook violently as Duo pounded on them. "I'm going out the window if this door isn't opened right now!" 

Heero turned to the door. "If you are not in that room when Trowa and I return," he said in a deadly calm voice, "you had better hope that the mummy gets to you before I do." 

The pounding ceased immediately. "Trowa," Heero said and without another word or a backward glance walked to the door, opened it and walked out. Trowa was right behind him. 

"Cold little bastard, isn't he?" Henderson muttered under his breath to his friend. Daniels just nodded. He had just had the bad feeling that these children were just as much a threat as Imhotep was.  
  
* * * * *   


Quatre sighed for the umpteenth time. He did so wish that Trowa and Heero would return, or even Wufei, who had left to keep an eye on Treize. The two majors were not good company in the least, preferring to keep their own council, and watching the news. Watching the TV while waiting for everyone to return mightn't been so bad, even the news, but it had quickly became apparent that Major Henderson and Major Daniels had an unhealthy obsession with the Gundams. During the last twenty minutes, he had been treated to no less than three reports about the Gundam attack the day before. Listening to the reports were bad enough, he had been there after all, and knew much better than the reporters what had really occurred, but to make things worse the two majors felt they had to comment on every little detail, and none of them were flattering to Trowa or himself. 

A soft knocking from the bedroom door was a welcomed distraction, and Quatre quickly went over to see what Duo wanted. Things had been silent on the other side of the double doors, and he had begun to wonder if Duo hadn't lived out his threat and exited through the window.

"Quatre? Quatre, are you out there?" Apparently he hadn't. 

The voice came from down low, so Quatre sat on the floor in front of the door. "I'm still here Duo." '_Though I would rather be anywhere else,_' he thought as he glanced back at the two majors. 

"Could you, umm, unlock the door and let me out?" 

Sadly Quatre shook his head. "No, I cannot. You heard what Heero said. Besides," he looked up at the handles, "as an added security measure, he secured the door handles with handcuffs. I haven't the key for those." 

Soft, muted swearing came from the other sided of the door. Most of the words were indistinct, but he made out the name Heero several times, and several other words that made his ears turn red and made him thankful that he could not hear everything. 

"Duo!" Quatre gasped in shock at a particularly vile oath. 

Duo paid his exclamation no mind. "...lousy, fucking son-of-a-bitch!" Duo finished. "I'm board, and I'm hungry! I haven't had anything to eat since morning!" 

"Then climb out the damn window!" Major Henderson growled. Even though they were speaking in soft voices, Duo's had a tendency to carry. 

"Don't feel like it," Duo grumbled back. 

"Well, I cannot open the door for you," Quatre said placidly. "You will just have to wait for Heero's return." 

"You think that Heero is going to want to eat once he gets back?" Duo questioned scathingly. "You know what he is like. Heero is immediately going to want to get rid of Imhotep as soon as he and Trowa arrive with Chamberlin and the book. And I'm not gonna face a mummy on an empty stomach!" 

"Considering how that slimy bastard looks, a empty stomach is better than a full one." Daniels had no more sympathy for Duo than Henderson, and Duo's whining was starting to get on his nerves. 

"Ahh..." Duo did have a point. With Heero, the mission was first priority, and Heero was taking this mission quite seriously. "How about this. I shall run out and grab some take-out. When Trowa and Heero return it will be waiting for you. Does that sound acceptable?" 

"Thanks Quatre!" Duo's voice practically glowed. "I knew I could count on you. Can I have pizza and fries?" 

Quatre shook his head and sighed. Some things never changed. "I will see what I can do." He stood up and brushed off his kakis. "I shall return shortly. Please stay out of trouble." 

"I'm locked in a room, how much trouble can I get into?" 

". . . . . . . . . . . . Please Duo, don't do anything until I return." 

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," Duo muttered dryly. A soft shuffling came from the other side of the door as Duo got to his feet and walked away. Shaking his head to himself, Quatre turned to the two majors. "I shall return shortly. Please keep an eye on Duo." 

"Shouldn't worry about the kid so much," Henderson muttered as Quatre let himself out of the room. "Stupid kid is locked up after all. What kind of trouble can he get into?" 

On the other side of the door Quatre sighed. Major Henderson had no idea. He rested his head against the closed door. How had things gone wrong so badly? This was supposed to have been a simple mission, retrieving a book. And now they were working with OZ, the legendary curse of Hamanaptra seemingly being anything but a legend. And the worst thing of all, a mummy, of all things, was hunting down one of his best friends. Quatre stood up and purposely strode down the hall. He had limited time to work with, and important calls to make.  
  
* * * * *   


The Bazaar of Cairo was everything that a terrorist could ask for. The narrow winding streets were lined with open-air stalls and teaming with people of all races and walks of life. It was the perfect place for a couple of terrorists to blend in, hiding from the eyes of anyone who watched as they made their way to Professor Chamberlin's office. 

It was Trowa who saw the glassmakers shop first, and he and Heero silently slid into the alley heading toward the stairs that would lead to the second story apartment. When they reached the doorway, they made the discovery of the door being partially ajar. Heero correctly assumed that the Professor would not be so careless while on the run from a vengeful mummy, pulled out his gun. Trowa followed suit, and they climbed up the narrow stairs. Once on the landing they saw that the door was open, and proceeded with caution. Silently the pair looked into the apartment, which was in the process of being ransacked by a dark little man with more than a passing family resemblance to the rodent family. Heero immediately recognized him as the man who had rushed past him on his way up to Major Burns' apartment. 

"Freeze." 

As so many others with a strong lack of common sense, Benni dropped the drawer full of papers he was going through and broke for the nearest window. Heero leveled his gun at the man; at the same time Trowa placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. A second later, a once overturned chair was flying across the room, striking Benni in the back and sending him sprawling across the floor. Benni had barely a chance to realize what was happening when he was roughly grabbed and flung against the wall. A second later Heero had covered the distance between them and had grabbed the thin man roughly by the throat. 

Heero locked cold blue eyes on Benni. "Where is Professor Chamberlin?" 

Benni, being the highly moral conscientious person that he was, immediately tried to lie his way out of the predicament that he was in. 

"Professor Chamberlin? I have never heard of him. I was just here to..." his voice faded to nothing as Heero pointed his gun, which Benni had not realized he was still holding, at his chest. 

"You were at the fort. Where is Professor Chamberlin?" 

Benni broke. "I don't know! He wasn't here when I got here!" 

"What are you looking for?" Trowa asked softly from behind Heero. 

"No...nothing..." Benni's shaky voice trailed off as he watched the second teenager finger a throwing knife that he had pulled out from somewhere in his cloths. 

"What is your involvement with Imhotep?" Heero demanded softly, eyes locked on Benni's face. He paled and Heero grimly pushed the barrel of his gun into Benni's flesh. "What did he send you here for?" 

Benni gave a harsh laugh. "Do you think that your threats compare to what Imhotep can do?" 

Heero and Trowa were silent, cold eyes locked on the man Heero had pinned against the wall. Benni smirked at them, a smirk that disappeared as quickly as the knife that appeared in the wall a breath away from his cheek. 

"Imhotep is not here," Trowa pointed out casually, fingering a second knife. "We are. What Imhotep can do to you at a later date is immaterial." 

"What are you here for?" Heero repeated. Benni paled even more, if that was possible, at the look in Heero's eyes. 

"The book! The book! Chamberlin has it, Imhotep wants it!" 

"Why?" Trowa asked softly. 

"I don't know." 

A second knife appeared next to Benni's other cheek, a thin trickle of blood dribbling down his dark skin. 

"He needs it to bring back his dead girlfriend!" Benni babbled out, finally convinced that, at the moment, these two boys were more of a threat to him than Imhotep was. He would do what he could to stay alive, and deal with the consequences later. "And he needs the kid with the braid. He needs both of them to bring her back. This is all that I know, I swear!" 

Heero nodded, believing him. He looked at Imhotep's servant straight in the eyes, and a shiver of terror ran through the man as he realized that this cold-eyed boy was going to kill him anyway. Benni whimpered softly. 

Then, from outside the open window came a shrill scream. Heero recognized infliction of the scream and momentarily turned his full attention away from his captive, who was quick to make use of this opportunity to escape. Benni promptly kneed Heero in the groin, causing the teenager to grunt and slacken his hold on Benni's throat. Panic-stricken at the lack of reaction from the teenager, Benni used all of his fear-driven adrenalin rush to break free from Heero's grasp. Driven by imminent death, Benni leaped out of the window just as a shot rang through the air where he had been, a bullet hole appearing in his red fez. He landed roughly, but still alive, and he retained a firm enough grip on himself to scuttle out of view before he was shot at again. 

No one in the bazaar paid any attention to the gunshot, Heero and Trowa noticed when they reached the window and looked out. The man was gone, but a crowd had gathered in the square, watching something. The found out what it was seconds later as the crowd parted with a low moan, showing the desiccated form of a man dressed in khakis and wearing a pith helmet. Heero immediately recognized the corpse that had once been the man they had been searching for. 

Hovering over the body was a tall figure dressed in a coarse black robe. Heero was not surprised to see him here. Imhotep had _The Book of the Dead_ tucked under one arm and was in the midst of taking a jeweled canopic jar from the sticklike fingers of the Professor. 

Heero and Trowa watched like statues as Imhotep freed the jar and secreted it somewhere in his volumous robes. Then, somehow sensing the hostile gaze from above, Imhotep looked up at the window. From where he stood, Heero could see that the mummy had regenerated even further, the rotted wound in his chest now healed and the skin starting to take on a flesh tone. 

Trowa just stared. So this was the mummy that Duo was in such a panic about. It wasn't what he expected. For some reason he expected it to look more like... well, a mummy than a partially decomposed corpse. Something like what he had seen in all the old movies that Duo had inflicted upon him; shriveled bodies wrapped in frayed, dusty cloths, walking with their arms extended and in a stumbling gait... No, this mummy was not what he expected at all. 

The mummy's face took on a decidedly unwelcoming look, something between anger and irritation, and it was directed at Heero. Then Trowa received a truly unwelcomed surprise as the mummy's jaw unhinged like a serpent's, opening to an impossible size. From this vast opening came a black mass of buzzing insects, a swarm of flies, directed at the window where he and Heero stood. 

Without even thinking about it, Trowa reached out and grabbed the shutter on his side. Next to him Heero did the same. Simultaneously they slammed the shutters shut, and Heero shut and locked the window as an added precaution just as they heard the flies slam into the wooden shutters. A slight shudder wracked Trowa's lanky frame. None of the mummies in the movies had ever done ~_that_~! 

On the other side of the closed window, in the square below, screaming began. Neither Heero nor Trowa were curious enough to see what the cause was. 

"So that was the mummy." Trowa stated, his voice betraying no hint of the unease he felt.

"He has the book." Heero murmured. "Now he needs..." 

"Duo," Trowa finished. The teenagers looked at each other for a moment, then as one raced toward the door.   
  
* * * * *   


Wufei was sitting on the bed in Treize's private suite waiting for Treize to finish with his meeting with Lady Une over the vidphone. Lady Une had been a bit surprised when Treize had literally dumped everything he was doing in France in her lap so he could go to Egypt the day before. All that he had told her at the time was that a situation had arisen that required his personal attention and that he should return in several days. That was what Wufei picked up as he listened to the conversation. He wasn't eavesdropping, which was highly unethical, because Treize knew he was in the room and listening. He focused back on the conversation at the sound of displeasure running through Lady Une's voice. Apparently she had not liked what Treize had just told her. 

"My Lady, that is not acceptable. It is imperative that you remain in France. The situation here is so that I cannot risk you." 

"Treize-sama," Lady Une quickly spoke up, "if it is so dangerous, then you must leave. I shall send a carrier for you immediately." 

Treize shook his head, his lips curled in a soft smile. "No My Lady. It is imperative that I remain. Without my presence here, there is no hope for this situation to resolve peacefully." 

Wufei had an angled view of the vidscreen, and he could tell that Lady Une was not happy with what Treize was telling her. Her displeasure grew even more at what Treize told her next. 

"But My Lady, if things are not peacefully resolved, you must take matters into your own hands." Treize grew deathly serious. "If I do not contact you by seven hundred hours tomorrow, withdraw all troops from Egypt." Wufei watched as Lady Une stiffened. "Then I wish for you to proceed to my private quarters. There is a secret compartment concealed behind the second left hand drawer of my writing desk. Inside this compartment is a disk with my last orders. Please play the disk, it will contain all the necessary information for you to act." 

"Treize-sama" Lady Une started; then stopped. She lowered her head momentarily, composing herself, then looked back at the screen. "Then I shall wait for your message tomorrow." The windscreen went black and Treize leaned back in his chair. 

"Situation?" Wufei asked; one eyebrow arched. "Since when was this classified as a 'situation'?" 

Treize gave Wufei a wry smile. "The Lady is a bit pragmatic in her belief about certain things. Were I to tell her what is truly occurring here, she would not believe it. But if she were to encounter it after the fact..." 

"Then she would," finished Wufei. "What about the disk?" 

Treize got to his feet, slowly unbuttoning his jacket. Opportunities like this, free time with his Dragon, were uncommon and precious. He was not planning on wasting a moment of it. "I had a data disk made in case something happened to me and Lady Une or Zechs needed to be made aware of Hamanaptra and the curse." 

Wufei watched Treize with dark eyes. "What is on the disk?" 

"The disk contains all information known to Romefeller about Hamanaptra. It also contains evacuation plans for the earth should we fail in our task to stop Imhotep." Treize let his jacket fall from his fingers onto the chest at the foot of the bed. 

"Escaping to the colonies?" Wufei slid across the bed, making room for Treize to kneel next to him. Treize reached for Wufei and started unbuttoning his shirt. 

"I knew such a royal color would suit you, Dragon," Treize murmured, stroking the golden skin as the parting silk revealed it to Treize's touch. "Imhotep is bound to the earth, he cannot leave the planet. In the worst case scenario, the colonies would be humanities only hope of survival." 

"And does the Romefeller Foundation know of this?" Wufei asked, his voice catching as Treize continued to stroke his chest. His own hands had been busy, he was sliding Treize's shirt down over his arms. 

"No," Treize cupped Wufei's face with his hands. "No one within the Romefeller Foundation would have risked awakening Imhotep. The plans for evacuation are purely my own." Then Treize bent over and captured Wufei's lips in a long, slow kiss. 

"Tomorrow we may face the end of the world," Treize murmured as he placed soft, sucking kisses down Wufei's neck, encouraging the boy to lie back on the bed. "Today let us make memories to last forever." In a silent response Wufei urged Treize back up and kissed him passionately, tasting the salty sweetness of his mouth. So involved with each other, they missed the light fluttering of the curtain at one of the windows open to let in the cool twilight air. 

Wufei wrapped his arms around his lover, running one hand through the soft ginger curls, the other dancing up and down Treize's back. 

"Aaah, my Dragon," Treize gasped as he broke free for air. 

"Treize..." Wufei murmured in a sensual haze. 

Then all hell broke loose as a piercing yowl filled the air, startling the lovers. A second later Treize reared up in pain as what felt like dozens of sharp needles sank into the tender skin of his back. Wufei saw a small dark object fall to the floor as Treize swore violently in German. He flipped over on to his stomach and peered over the edge of the bed. Sitting on the floor with a Heeroish expression of irritation on its small face, was Duo's cat. 

"What is ~_that_~ doing here?" Treize asked, ice in his voice. He slowly got to his feet, wincing as the movement pulled on the mauled skin of his back. 

"Mrrrow!" Little black stood and regally marched the few feet to the bed. Placing her front paws up on the bed, she looked the Chinese pilot straight in the eyes. "Mmroww," she yowled urgently. Something seemed to pass between them, from Wufei's curious eyes to Little Black's pleading eyes, for Wufei sat up and reached for his shirt. "Something is wrong with Maxwell." 

"And how, pray tell, have you come to that conclusion?" Treize had not watched the meeting of eyes; instead he had been studying the multitude of cat scratches that now decorated his back. Blood had beaded along them, but they were not actually bleeding. They did hurt, however, and every move he made sent fresh pain lancing across his back. 

"The cat was left with Maxwell, and he is the only one she has been friendly with," he murmured distractedly. "I have a feeling that she has searched us out for a reason. Maxwell would be the only reason." 

"Really?" Treize drawled, picking up his shirt from the bed. He winced as he slowly pulled it on. "Then let us go and check on your destructive little pilot and return his bloodthirsty cat to him." 

Wufei turned coal-black eyes to his lover. "You believe that something is wrong as well, then?" 

"At this point," Treize slipped on his jacket, quickly buttoning it up, "I will consider anything possible.  
  
* * * * *   


Henderson switched off the TV. The blond kid had been gone for nearly an hour now, and the other two, Heero and Trowa, should be back soon with the Professor and the book. Then they could get rid of that damn mummy. At this point, he didn't care if they retrieved the book they were sent for or not, he just wanted to get out of this cursed country and back to America where mummies were where they belonged, in the movies. 

On the other side of the room Daniels flicked out his cigarette. He had wandered over to the window some time ago, and had been silently staring out it. "Hell with this," he muttered. "I am going down and getting me a drink. Want anything?" 

Stupid question. "Yeah, get me a glass of bourbon." Daniels nodded and started toward the door. "And a shot of bourbon." Daniels nodded again and reached for the knob. "And a bourbon chaser." 

Daniels snorted as he opened the door. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get your damn bourbon." He marched out of the room without any other words. 

Henderson watched him leave and a moment later got to his feet, a disgusted look on his face. "Forget about the damn door, why don't you," he called out loudly. No response. With a grimace he stalked over to the door to close it himself. 

"Rrorrr..." 

Quickly Henderson glanced down. Standing in the open doorway was the kitten the kid had been lugging around. "And what's your problem, furball?" 

Little Black glanced up at him, her tail swishing agitatedly behind her. "Rrorrr..." she repeated. 

"Hell, I am not putting up with this shit." With a quick swipe of a booted foot, Henderson swept the cat out the door and closed it behind her. He would have locked it, except that then Daniels wouldn't be able to get in with his bourbon. He turned, and his gaze, as it swept across the room, landed on the jeweled canopic jar that was his share of the treasure. He walked over to it and picked it up, turning it in his hands, studying it. It was beautiful, and ancient. A piece of history that one could hold, it predated the birth of Christ by over a thousand years. Kingdoms and Empires had risen and fallen into obscurity, yet this jar still remained. A cool breeze blew through the window, ruffling his sandy blond hair, and he set the precious jar down on the glass table. He hated deserts; like an oven in the daytime, and an icebox at night. With a shake of his head Henderson went to the window, wondering about the sudden impulse of his normally cautious friend had developed to leaving ~_everything_~ stand open. The cold breeze blew through the window stronger, causing him to shiver. Yes, that window was going to be closed. He reached for the shutters when a wind, not a breeze, and hot, not cold, suddenly blew into the room. 

He gave a start at the feel of sharp stings of pain in his face and on his hands, and he quickly realized that this wind was carrying sand into the room. The realization that this was not a natural wind came too late for him to do more than give a choked gasp as he was suddenly driven back into the room by a sudden maelstrom of driven sand. With no air to gasp in for a scream, the only sounds were his sobbing whimpers and the hiss of sand and wind as he was swept up into the whirling sandstorm. He struggled desperately, but there was nothing that he could do, nothing that he could affect as the ominous sand struck him, draining him of fluids and life. Then the sand drew away, and the contorted, desiccated corpse of the late Major Henderson landed with a muted thud on the rug covered wooden floor. The vortex of sand condensed, then changed, taking on the form of a man; then the High Priest Imhotep stood proud in the sitting room of Heero and Duo's quarters. 

Imhotep did not give the major a last look as he strode across the room; retrieving the falcon headed canopic jar that Henderson had taken claim to. Gently he caressed it, he was that much closer to having his love once again at his side, and secreted it within his volumous black robe. He looked around the room, and at the sound of a low moan turned to the locked doors of the bedroom. A scarab scurried out of a not-yet-healed- cavity just above his collarbone and scurried up his neck to a similar cavity in his cheek. Absently Imhotep chewed the scarab as he strode to the door, knowing who was on the other side. 

Once at the doors, he frowned softly as he studied the handles. One hand took hold of the handcuffs and tugged slightly, then released them. It would be no mean feat for him to break the chain and force the doors open, but his last few meetings with his chosen had been turmoulus meetings, and his chosen had not been receptive of his advances. Maybe this time more decorum was required. 

On the other side of the door, lying on the top of the covers on the bed, Duo slept. After Quatre had left, Duo had once again been left to his own devices. This was rather sad, as there wasn't much for an active teenager to do in the bedroom. He had no books, and Heero had either taken his laptop with him or hid it where he couldn't find it. The only two options left to him to pass time were to either take a shower, or take a nap. He had leaned heavily toward the shower, until he came to the realization that if they had to leave fast, naked and dripping wet was not the way to go. And with how his luck was running, he would be streaking through the halls in nothing but a robe. Not an enticing prospect to look forward to. On the other hand, a nap would be a good idea. He was a bit tired; he hadn't slept well the night before after all, and everything hinted that tonight would be a late night. Some rest would be a good idea. Unfortunately, Duo had forgotten about the nightmare factor. So instead of the peaceful sleep he had been planning on, he was once again immersed in a nightmare of death and destruction. While so occupied, he was unaware of the faint hissing sound of sand as it poured through the old fashioned keyhole. He was unaware of when the hissing stopped, and when the pile of sand shifted, growing into a pillar, and then taking on the form of a man. The sandy form changed even more, changing from rock crystals into flesh and blood. With all of his attention focused on the nightmare that had always been to real, he never noticed when the living corpse in reality came to stand next to the bed, looking down at him with a tender look on his face before whispering the name of his beloved and bending over to kiss Duo's slightly parted lips. The kiss itself became a warped part of Duo's dream, as he had instinctively realized that it wasn't Heero kissing him. The scent of rotted flesh and the feel of bone as Imhotep's lips deteriorated from the touch of Duo's soft flesh weaved seamlessly into his nightmare and he gave a tortured whimpered. 

The sound of his love yelling his name and the violent sound of hinges screeching and the door splintering as Heero kicked it in abruptly freed Duo from his troubled sleep. He opened his eyes, and met the rotted, smiling face of Imhotep right above his. Disoriented by his dream, and face to face with his living nightmare, Duo did what came instinctively at a time like this. He gave a bloodcurdling screech that caused Imhotep to jerk back in surprise and lunged for the far side of the bed with a burst of speed anyone would have been hard pressed to match. The scream faded, and in the new silence rushing footsteps could be heard. "Maxwell!" Wufei burst into the suite and skidded to a stop behind Heero, who was standing in the middle of the double doorway. Imhotep screeched his displeasure of the interruption and started toward Heero; and in Wufei's arms Little Black hissed her personal feelings about the mummy. With a snarl at Imhotep, Heero turned, grabbed the small cat by the scruff of her neck, and flung her at the approaching mummy. 

Little Black didn't even have a chance to vocalize her views of this kind of treatment before Imhotep caught hold of her, instinctively grabbing the object tossed at him. He screeched upon realizing what he held, she hissed, and Imhotep dropped her like a hot coal. Heero, Wufei, and Treize -who had just managed to join them- watched as the mummy stumbled several steps to the window. As had happened earlier, a violent gust of wind swept into the room, Imhotep dissolved into a whirling mass of sand, and he blew out the window with a howl. 

As the windows slammed shut of their own violation, Heero stalked across the room, past the offended cat, and skirted around the bed. Sitting on the floor next to the wall, curled into a ball with his arms wrapped around his legs and his face resting on his knees, was Duo. He was shaking, but at the sound of Heero's approach, he looked up. 

"He is gone," Heero said softly, hunching down so he could look Duo eye to eye. His love locked his eyes on Heero as though grasping a lifeline. "I'm here now." 

"Duo!" a familiar, high-pitched voice yelled from the other room. Everyone turned as Quatre rushed in, pushing past Wufei and Treize. "I came as fast as I could." He skidded to a stop next to Heero. "I am so sorry," Quatre wailed softly. "I should never have left you." Heero shot Quatre a cold look, agreeing with him wholeheartedly. 

Shaking his head slight, Duo gave Quatre a weak smile. "Nah, not your fault. I asked you to go. If you had been here..." his voice faded off. What would have happened if Quatre had been here? And, Duo's eyes narrowed slightly as his fear dissipated and he started to think things through, what happened to the two majors? 

Right at that moment, Trowa entered the bedroom. "It was Major Henderson," he said to Heero. Without turning, Heero nodded. Wufei and Treize turned and looked behind them, just for the first time noticing the corpse lying unobtrusively on the floor. Quatre looked back at his love, puzzled, before awareness crept in and his eyes grew wide in horror. His hands covered his mouth and he glanced over at Duo. 

"Well, maybe it was a good thing you weren't here after all," Duo said, his voice sounding a bit strained. Trowa, Wufei and Treize approached the small group by the bed. 

"How are you feeling?" Treize asked softly, giving the American pilot a concerned look. 

"I'll be fine," Duo said, his tone saying otherwise. 

"Maxwell," Wufei frowned and gave Duo a close look. "What is on your face?" 

Duo gave him a puzzled frown and touched his face. His fingers encountered something sticky. "Wha..." he pulled his fingers back and looked at them, they were covered in some sort of opaque slime. 

"Duo, what is it?" 

"I don't..." his voice trailed off and his eyes grew wide as a memory resurfaced, of an aberration that had occurred in his nightmare. He turned green and jumped to his feet. "Oh God!" Duo gagged and lunged across the bed, rushing toward the bathroom, his hands covering his mouth. 

"What is with him?" Wufei asked. 

"The mummy kissed him," Heero growled out, his fists clenched. Various members of the small group turned pale, and Quatre turned green. In the distance, they could hear Duo being violently ill. "Kare o korosu."  
  
* * * * *   


Once again the Hummer was navigating the narrow streets of Cairo, this time with Trowa driving. Treize had not wanted to endanger any other people by involving them in this affair, regardless on how lightly it touched them. The destination was, as earlier, the Museum of Antiquities where Sefic was waiting for them. While Duo cleaned himself up (it was all they could do to keep him from taking the hottest possible shower to wash off Imhotep's touch) and Daniels returned (dropping the bottle of bourbon he had brought for his friend, much to the disappointment of those who felt a little liquid reinforcement was in need of) Treize had called the Museum in hopes that Sefic had come up with some alternative other than _The Black Book of the Dead_. 

She said that she had. 

As they pulled up in front of the museum, ground-lights shone on the sandstone statues and made them look gilded with gold; Sefic opened the front doors and motioned for them to hurry. They piled out of the vehicle and all waited for Trowa to park the Hummer and catch up with them. As soon as Trowa was in sight, she led the group through the atrium toward a wide white marble staircase. 

Treize had informed Sefic over the phone of what had happened with Professor Chamberlin and Major Henderson, and had informed her of the two new additions to their party. In return, she had told him that ancient lore might have the key to returning He Who Shall Not Be Named to the Underworld, but that they should hurry over so that all could hear it at once and so they could act immediately. Time was running out for them, and Imhotep only had to claim one more life for him to be fully regenerated. Treize had told her that they would be there as soon as possible. As they walked to the staircase, Sefic was introduced to Quatre, whom she gave a slightly wide-eyed smile to, and to Trowa. She had introduced herself as Sefic Carnahan, no relation to Howard Carnahan of Tutankhamun fame. Sefic and Quatre shared a smile when she said that, much to the confusion of everyone around them. It was only after they had started up the gently sloping staircase that she began to tell them of what she had found. 

"According to ancient lore," she switched into lecture mode -a mode of speech that Duo noted that she seemed very fond of- "The original _Book of the Dead_ was said to be able to bring the dead back to life." 

"Original book?" Trowa questioned softly. "There is more than one?" 

"Yes," Sefic nodded, "After that little mishap with He Who Shall Not Be Named, the original was hidden in Hamunaptra. The priests of Anubis and Horus had a second copy made, this book without the major spells that made the original book so special. This way there was less of a chance of trouble." 

"They should have thought of that beforehand," Duo muttered. Sefic's eyes clouded for a moment, and it almost looked as if she wanted to say something, but she gave a small shake of her head and continued on the original subject. 

"Well, they do say that hindsight is twenty-twenty. Anyway, ancient lore also mentioned another book of power, one that should fix everything for us." 

"And what book would that be?" Wufei asked. 

Sefic paused and turned to the men walking behind her. "_The Book of Amun Ra_," she said with a satisfied little smile. 

If everyone had not already had stopped walking when she had, they would have been instantly stilled at her words. As it was, they were all shocked into silence. Sefic calmly waited for them to say something, the slight shine in her eyes the only indication that she had known that they would react this way. 

It was Daniels who finally broke the silence. 

"~_That~_ book!" he exclaimed in disbelief. 

She just nodded, trying hard not to break down and smirk at him. "Yes, an incantation from that book should send He who shall not be named to the Underworld, where the gods can deal with him. But first we must find it." 

"I wanna say something first," Duo gave everyone a stern look. "There is no fucking way I am going back to the City of the Dead. There is absolutely no way in hell am I going back!" 

All the light disappeared from Sefic's golden eyes; then she turned and started back up the stairs. "For the ritual to bring back Anck-su-namun, He Who Shall Not Be Named needs to replace the organs that were secreted within the five sacred canopic jars. Duo, to do this he shall split you open from sternum to pelvis. As he removes your organs, still coursing with your life's blood, he shall intone the incantations that will transfer your life to her, and bring her back to the world of flesh. These incantations shall also, as a matter of course, bind your soul to her by the strength of your blood and tissue. After her rebirth, you shall spend the rest of eternity looking out from her eyes, unable to communicate or affect anything around you, a prisoner in foreign flesh until the sun stops shining and the earth stops spinning." Sefic reached the top of the landing and turned to face Duo, who, along with everyone else, had remained where they had stopped and stared up at her in horror. Out of everyone staring at her, only Quatre noted the distress in her eyes at her announcement of what was to befall Duo if they failed. 

"When do we leave?" Duo asked in a horse voice. 

"As soon as we find out where in Hamanaptra the old priests hid the gold book." She started walking, the others following as she slowly made her way down the long balcony, glancing into display case after display case. "General Treize? I do not suppose that you have any information at hand that may help us?" 

Treize shook his head. "I am most regretful to tell you that the Romefeller Foundation has distroyed all such information over the years in order to prevent the books from being found. As such, I have not a notion where the books were hidden." 

"According to the Brembridge Scholars," Wufei lectured in the same tone that Sefic had used earlier, "_The Book of Amun Ra_ was hidden in the statue of Anubis." 

"But that was where we found that damn black book!" Daniels exclaimed. 

"Yes," Sefic nodded absently, studying sandstone tablets in one of the display cases before frowning and walking to the next one. "That would be an appropriate place to find _The Black Book of the Dead_. Wufei, in your readings, do you remember a mention of where the black book was hidden?" 

Wufei scowled at her. "Onna, _you_ are the Egyptologist. Should you not know this?" 

"Onna?" Sefic frowned as she repeated the foreign word, her crisp British accent giving the Japanese word an interesting sounding twist. "Onna?" Her golden eyes darkened; then she smiled sunnily at Wufei. "So ~_otoko_~ I take that to mean that your scholarship in this area is incomplete?" 

Wufei's eyes grew wide and a red flush creped up his face. But before he could make a scathing remark about her own apparent lack of scholarship, Daniels held up his hand. 

"Quiet everyone. Do you hear something?" 

Everyone fell silent. Indeed they did, an eerie chanting that seemed to come from outside the museum. In a semi-ordered group they quickly went to a large octagon shaped window overlooking the parking lot. Though it was dark out, they could easily see the approaching crowd of people converging on the library. 

"Im-ho-tep. Im-ho-tep. Im-ho-tep." The approaching crowd intoned. As they grew closer, they could see the crowd was a mixture of people, natives in native dress and tourists in western clothing. Rich and poor, all united in a horrifying, unthinking purpous. 

"Dear God!" Treize exclaimed. "What is wrong with them?" 

"They are zombies," Duo murmured. 

Quatre, Wufei and Heero all turned to Duo. "What is a zombie?" Quatre asked in a 'I really am going to regret asking this' voice. 

"The living dead," Trowa answered his love's question, staring out the window. Mummies and zombies, all in one day, what a joy. He was never going to watch monster movies with Duo again!

There was a rustle as everyone but Treize and Sefic drew a gun. 

"Look at them," Sefic murmured, sounding slightly sick. "Look at their skin." 

Many of the zombies were close enough by now that it was easy to see what Sefic was talking about. As they stumbled forward in their stumbling walk, everyone could see the misshapen skin and seeping sores that covered every zombie. 

"It is another of the plagues," Treize announced. "Boils and sores. They have become his slaves. It has begun, the beginning of the end." 

"General," Sefic turned to him, patting him lightly on the arm and giving him a winsome look. "Don't give up now, we still have a chance. And if we need more time to recover the book, we can always kill Major Daniels." 

"WHAT!!!" Everyone exclaimed, the approaching zombies temporarily shocked out of mind. 

"He Who Shall Not Be Named cannot fully regenerate unless he has assimilated the Major, while he is still alive. If he is dead," she shrugged lightly, "there is no way he can be assimilated." 

Major Daniels was suddenly under the intense scrutiny of four of the teenagers. Belatedly he realized that _they were all heavily armed and showed no reservations about killing him!_

"I do not believe we have needs to go that far," Treize quickly spoke, realizing the same thing Daniels had, and quickly stepped in front of Daniels, knowing at least one of the four pilots would not shoot him. "Killing an innocent man is not the way to resolve this." 

"No, but it would give us some more time," Treize gave the British egyptologist student a cold, disbelieving look, unable to believe that such an innocent-looking girl could suggest something so cold-blooded. Sefic did not notice the look; she had left the window and had returned to the last case she had been looking at. In the distance came the faint, but steady, sound of pounding accompanying the chanting. "The doors are sturdy and locked, but they will give out eventually. Let us not be here when they do." She unlocked the case and started shuffling through sandstone tablets. 

"What exactly are you looking for?" Heero finally asked, speaking for the first time since they had arrived at the museum. 

"The Brembridge Scholars based their papers on the translations of the tablets in this case. If they thought that _The Black Book of the Dead_ was being guarded by Anubis, it may mean the original translators were mistaken, that they mixed up the hiding places of the books." 

Logical thinking, Heero nodded curtly. "So these tablets tell where the gold book is." 

Sefic nodded, her glasses falling down to the tip of her nose as she ran her fingers across the tablets, muttering in ancient Egyptian as she looked for the information she needed. The pounding on the door grew stronger, and the faint sounds of wood cracking echoed up to the balcony. 

"Can you read any faster?" Daniels demanded. 

"Patience is a virtue," Sefic murmured, shuffling several pieces of sandstone together like a puzzle. 

Duo shook his head. "Not right now, it isn't." 

Trowa glanced down at the shaking doors and started down the balcony. "I will prepare the car." 

"Trowa!" 

He glanced back and looked at Quatre. "Be careful." 

Trowa nodded, and silently ran down the stairs. 

"Yesss..." Sefic hissed. "Got it!" She stood up and pushed her glasses up, a huge grin on her face. "_The Golden Book of Amun Ra_ is hidden in the statue of Horus." 

"But where in Hamanaptra is the statue of Horus!" Wufei demanded. "It will take weeks to find it in that labyrinth of tunnels. 

Sefic was unable to resist giving Wufei a smug smirk. "The statue of Horus is located fifty yards west of the statue of Anubis." 

Right then the massive doors gave way with a resounding bang, landing heavily on the floor with several of the entranced zombies falling on top of them. The rest of the zombies poured in, crushing their fallen members without a though as they entered the gallery, their cries filling the atrium. 

"Time to go!" Duo grabbed Heero with one hand, hugged Little Black to his chest with his other, and raced after Sefic as she lead them to a secondary staircase that would lead them to an emergency exit off the parking lot.  
  
* * * * *   


Trowa was waiting for them in the Hummer, engine purring and ready to go. Trowa had been sitting, watching with growing agitation as he listened to crashes and the shattering of glass as Imhotep's zombies wrecked priceless artifacts in their mindlessness. More than anything he had ever wanted, Trowa wanted to leave this area, leave these unnatural creatures far behind him. Mummies. Zombies. They were not supposed to exist, and he had no idea how to deal with their presence or how to deal with them directly. For the first time ever, he felt fear. And he had no idea how to deal with ~_that_~ either. 

But no matter how the creatures bothered him, he was not leaving without his compatriots. Relief washed through him as the side door burst open, nearly torn open as Heero lead the way out of the museum, one hand grasped tightly around Duo's wrist. Right on Duo's heels was Quatre, followed by Wufei and Treize. Behind them, gun held tightly, was Major Daniels, and trailing behind him Sefic, bringing up the rear. His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her glance around quickly, a gold and ivory scimitar held low. She wasn't behind the others because she was slower, he realized, she was guarding their backs. And from the watchful way she was keeping track of Major Daniels, he was sure that if Imhotep arrived to take the major, she would kill him first. 

"Go man, go!" Duo yelled as he launched himself into the front passenger seat, Heero climbing in behind him. Quatre took the seat behind Trowa, Wufei behind Heero with Treize sitting across from him, behind Quatre. Daniels and Sefic were in the very back, Sefic barely climbing in when Trowa, seeing her nod in the rear-view mirror, floored it. 

As his foot hit the gas, and the tires squealed in protest, the fire escape door burst open and Benni ran out. His eyes opened wide as he watched their escape. "Imhotep! Imhotep!" he yelled out, calling to his master. "Imhotep!" 

Everyone but Trowa spun around. They could see the weaselish man standing behind them, and they could see his ancient master appearing in an upper floor window, glaring at them as they made their escape. 

"You'll get yours, you little bastard!" Daniels roared back at Benni. 

Benni just sneered at him. "Like I haven't heard ~_that_~ before!" he yelled back. 

Up in the window, his face contorted with rage, Imhotep opened his mouth and emitted a shriek so loud an shrill it cause everyone riding in the Hummer ear's to ring. Trowa swung the wheel hard, turning sharply. Their last view of the museum was that of hordes of zombies pouring out the doors, running after them.  
  
* * * * *   


"I think we lost them," Quatre said with a sigh of relief and slumped down in his seat. They had not seen a zombie for the past ten minutes, not since they had left the museum. Due to all the twists and turns that Trowa had made to avoid pursuit, they were now driving down a stall-lined street in the bazaar quarter. 

"We should head to the airfield," Treize murmured softly, still on the watch for zombies. "My jet is fueled, and we should be in Hamanaptra before sunrise if we leave within the hour." 

"Sounds good to me," Duo chirped. He was also on the lookout, for zombies and mummies. He was absently stroking Little Black, who was sitting in his lap. He was holding his gun with the other. "Go get the book, knock off Imhotep, and my life is all rosy again...aww shit!" 

Trowa braked hard as a wandering crowd of zombies appeared in the road before them. They stared at the zombies for a moment, all who were shuffling from foot to foot, chanting Imhotep's name softly. 

"We will have to backtrack," Treize said, mentally going over their previous route. 

"Does Imhotep know where we are?" Heero demanded, turning back to look at Sefic. 

She solemnly nodded. "Their eyes are his eyes. He knows exactly where we are." 

Heero nodded and looked to Trowa. "Trowa..." he started, but Trowa apparently knew what Heero was about to say. Without a change of expression, he shifted gears and hit the gas petal, sending them rushing toward the waiting crowd. At the same time, the zombies gave a cry and lunged toward the Hummer. 

"Dear God!" Treize cried out, horrified at what was happening. The Hummer hit the crowd, slowing its progress as the bodies before it became a human roadblock. The huge vehicle ran over many of them, wheels rolling over their bodies, but it did nothing to decrease the number of zombies attacking them. They came pouring out of the side alleys, rushing the Hummer and clinging to it in their effort to reach the occupants. It quickly fell down to survival tactics. Heero, Duo, Quatre and Daniels all pulled out their guns and began shooting, striking the zombies with their guns and fists when they drew too close. Treize was unarmed, he was doing what he could to pry and toss off the zombies barehanded. Wufei and Sefic had both drawn their swords, they were hacking and stabbing the zombies, severing limbs here and there, doing the best they could do to keep the zombies off of them and the Hummer. Trowa was beating off zombies with one hand, steering the best he could with Duo and Quatre turning to shoot a zombie attacking him whenever they could. 

Then it happened. As Daniels pulled out a new clip for his gun, two zombies sprang forward and grabbed him by the arms. 

"GENERAL!" Daniels yelled out in a panic. Treize turned to him, but Sefic reacted quicker. With an overhead swing, she neatly divested one of the zombies of his head, but their backward momentum still pulled Daniels over the tail of the Hummer. 

"HEERO!" Sefic yelled, striking another zombie in the face with the pummel of her scimitar. 

Heero quickly spun around and assimilated the situation. Without hesitation he emptied his clip into the crowd behind them, trying to hit Daniels, to no avail. The crowd around him was just too thick. 

"Trowa, stop!" Sefic yelled. "We have to go back, they have Major Daniels!" 

"Stop? Are you crazy?!?" Duo spun around and gave her an incredulous look. "If we stop, we are all dead!" Behind them was a bloodcurdling shriek of horror. Sefic cursed at the sound, knowing what it meant, but didn't stop in her efforts to repel the attacking zombies. 

They exited the narrow street into a zombie free square. Trowa hit the gas in an attempt to leave the zombies and the approaching mummy far behind them, but a zombie grabbed the wheel and caused the Hummer to turn sharply, making it run up a short incline leading to a stone watering trough that was situated alongside a wall for camels. The Hummer, having just hit a good speed, hit the trough with enough force to cause the front wheels of the Hummer to pop over the edge and land in the trough, high watering the vehicle. 

"Everybody out," Heero demanded. Before he stopped speaking, most everyone had leaped out and was preparing to make a run for it. Heero grabbed Duo's wrist and they started running. They didn't get far, the street they were aiming for full of zombies. The small group turned, looking for another avenue of escape, but zombies surrounded them. They shuffled together, guns and swords raised, as they stared at the crowd surrounding them. Instead of attacking, the zombies just stood, softly intoning the name of their master. 

"This sucks," Duo growled, everyone agreed with his assessment of the situation. 

"Sshhhh!" Sefic motioned to the crowd. A low murmur rose, and the crowd parted, revealing the approaching form of the mummy, no longer a rotting corpse hidden by black robes, but a prime example of strength and masculinity. Behind him, presenting a totally opposite appearance, was Benni. 

"He is fully regenerated," Treize said solemnly. "All that is left for him is to raise Anck-su-namun from the dead." 

Imhotep approached the small group, smiling. The Gundam pilots all trained their guns on him. Ten feet from them he came to a stop and held out his hand to Duo, speaking to him softly. "_Keetah mi pharos, aja nilo, isirian,_" he commanded. 

" 'Come with me, my princess. It is time to make you mine forever.' " Benni translated. Imhotep smiled and gave Duo a small nod of encouragement. 

Sefic glared at Benni. "For all eternity, you idiot," she sneered. Benni gave her a surprised look, not understanding her hostility toward him, his dark little eyes quickly going over her slim frame. She gave him a glare that should have, in all rights, dropped him dead in his tracks. 

Imhotep ignored the exchange and stepped closer to Duo, speaking to him once again. "_Koontash dai na, aja nilo_." 

" 'Take my hand, and I'll spare your friends.' " 

"We don't need you to translate for us, you pathetic worm of a man," Sefic told Benni, raising her nose in the air as though something smelt bad. Benni glared at her again, his hands shaking. 

"Onna, shut up!" Wufei hissed at her. Sefic turned and shot him a nasty look, which Wufei readily returned. 

Imhotep stayed quiet, watching them with apparent superiority. Duo gave him a searching look, then turned to his love; who was staring at Imhotep with hatred burning in his blue eyes. "Let me go with him." 

"What!" Quatre, Wufei and Sefic exclaimed in shock. Duo pulled on Heero's hand, silently asking him to release his arm. 

"He is going to take me, whether you want him to or not. You guys know where he is going next, so don't get yourselves killed now before you can rescue me." 

"Iie," Heero said, tightening his grip. 

Duo looked at him, his violet eyes meeting Heero's blue. He sprang forward and planted a quick kiss on Heero's lips. "Trust me, and come after me," Duo whispered right before an angered Imhotep ripped him out of Heero's grasp. Imhotep pulled Duo close to him and sneered at Heero.

Heero snarled and prepared to lunge forward to take Duo back when Trowa laid a firm hand on his shoulder. "Wait," he said softly. 

Imhotep smirked and glanced down at Duo in his embrace. He tilted Duo's head up, and gave Duo a soft kiss on his cheek. This time, there was no deterioration of the flesh. Imhotep gave Duo a possessive look and pulled him close. 

"Heero," Duo said in a strained voice. "If I get turned into a mummy, I'm coming after you first." 

Imhotep looked over the pilots, Treize and Sefic, and then said something in a low voice to Benni. He looked up quickly, and then shuffled over to Treize, where he dipped a hand into Treize's jacket. Treize remained still. When Benni drew his hand back, he held the gold puzzle box in his grasp. 

"I had wondered where that had gotten to," Sefic said under her breath, so low that Quatre, who was standing next to her and staring at the puzzle box in shocked recognition, barely heard her. 

Benni quickly walked over to Imhotep, giving the key to him. Imhotep smiled, turned, and with Duo still in his grasp, walked through the crowd. The zombies parted like the sea, letting him through, Benni trailing along behind him like an obedient dog. Halfway through the crowd Imhotep yelled new orders to his slaves. 

"He lied to us," Wufei spat out as the homicidal crowd closed in, hiding Imhotep and Duo from their view. Sefic yelled out something to Imhotep in ancient Egyptian, but he did not seem to react to it, and the crowd continued to close in. Wufei and Sefic drew their swords and stepped forward to meet the zombies. 

Heero was kneeling on the ground, having already come up with a plan of escape. With no show of difficulty, he lifted the heavy lid of a cistern and set it aside. "Get in," he commanded. Quatre and Trowa gave the crowd a quick look, then Heero, and quickly slipped into the hole. Heero watched Wufei and Sefic as Treize clambered down into the cistern. 

"Go," Sefic told Wufei. "Someone must hold them off. Leave me, you must go and save your friend." 

"I will not leave an onna to fight alone," Wufei snarled, eyes locked on the approaching zombies. 

"They will not leave until they have tasted blood...eek!" Wufei spared Sefic a quick glance and saw that Heero had came up behind her and had thrown her roughly over his shoulder. 

"Wufei," Heero commanded, and Wufei slowly began to back toward the cistern. Heero shoved Sefic, struggling wildly, into the cistern. With a quick jerk of his head, he motioned for Wufei to jump in. Wufei arched an eyebrow, his eyes widening as he saw a detonator in Heero's hand. He quickly jumped into the hole, nearly landing on Quatre. Heero activated the detonator, grabbed the lid, and jumped into the cistern, keeping his hold on the cover. Seconds later the detonator exploded, shaking the ground and sending a fine layer of dust to fill the air. 

"What was that?" Sefic whispered in the silence that followed. 

"The zombies got their taste of blood," Wufei replied. 

Heero's feet caught the metal stairs and he pushed the cistern cover up. "Lets get Duo."  
  
  
Chapter Two - End   
  


* * * * * * * 


	4. Teaser Chapter Three

  
    Hello minna. Finally, an update on 'The Gundam Mummy'. Good news, chapter three has been finished. Bad news, it still needs to be typed up. Considering the number of hand-written pages (ten) and the amount of time I have to spare for typing (not much at all), the chapter will not be finished until after the New Year. Until then, here is a bit of a teaser to hold you.   
    Also, I will be doing author's notes at the end of this story, right after the epilogue. If you have any questions on how I wrote things, or any random comments, send them to me and I will do my best to answer them in the author's notes. They, along with the epilogue, will be posted within a month of the posting of chapter three.   
Thank you,   
Lady Koneko 

* * * * * * * 

    Disclaimers - Gundam Wing and all characters associated with it belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency. The Mummy and all characters and plot associated with it belong to Universal pictures. Sefic and any characters or situations not belonging to Gundam Wing or The Mummy belong to the author, Lady Koneko and may ~not~ be used without her expressed (and written) permission. 

Questions, C&C are welcome. 

* * * * * * * 

The Gundam Mummy 

Chapter Three: Return to the City of the Dead 

By Lady Koneko 

    Quatre unbuckled his seatbelt with a relieved sigh. Takeoff had gone smoothly, unlike most everything that had occurred since they first accepted this mission. He looked around the jet. Trowa was sitting next to him, looking out the window at the miles of sand below them as they flew to Hamunaptra. Heero was sitting several seats behind them, scowling darkly at the empty air in front of him. Heero was not someone to approach right now. Wufei was in the cockpit with Treize, none of them felt comfortable with an OZ soldier piloting the jet unless one of them was right with him. Then his eyes fell on the lone female on the plane, the only person he had seen since this unfortunate business in Egypt started that casted an honest-to-Allah aura of mystery around her. Sefic Carnahan. 

    She was sitting on the opposite side of the jet, next to the window, Duo's kitten sleeping in her lap, fidgeting slightly. Ever since he had first met her last evening, he had been bothered by something -of what he was not sure- but something about the Egyptology student did not ring true to him. He had noticed something about her the moment he laid eyes on her, the feeling that she was not what she seemed, and it had not gone away. In fact, it had just gotten worse as time went by and he noted little discrepancies in what she said and did, and what she didn't. No one else seemed to notice but him, and he could not figure out a way to voice his concerns to the others when he didn't even know what exactly to be concerned about. Even their introductions had not been exempt from his suspicions. She had given him and Trowa wide-eyed smiles when they first met, and she had given him a warm, knowing smile when she had introduced herself, and then her eyes gleamed a bright gold when she had said that ~she~ was no relation of Howard Carnahan. He smiled warmly in reflex, though a cold shiver had made its way down his spine. How had she known? That Howard Carnahan was his many times great-grandfather? And there were other things. While not knowing where _The Golden Book of Amun Ra_ was hidden at Hamanaptra, she displayed knowledge of the layout of the City of the Dead, and familiarity of the spells contained in said book while pleading ignorance on the spells in the Black Book. Her rather cold-blooded announcement that they could kill the now deceased Major Daniels to gain time had been unsettling, even more unsettling was that he had known that if it had called for it, that she would have done it. She certainly had tried to behead him when he had been pulled from the vehicle. What bothered him the most about her, strangely enough, was none of the above. It was her sobering account on what would happen to Duo if they failed, and the look in her eyes, the distress and the smothered pain that only he had felt. 

    A soft sound caught his attention, and Quatre watched as Sefic lowered her head to whisper something to the small cat on her lap. When they had left the cistern the night before, the carnage in the square was unbelievable. Normally the detonators they used were for structures, on earth and in space, and none of them -well, he certainly hadn't- thought about what kind of damage their detonators could do to a human. The square was literally covered in bits of bone, flesh, limbs and blood. He had nearly become sick at view and the smell, and he had seen that Wufei and Treize were similarly affected. Trowa's eyes had closed, as they did on occasion when he wanted to block something, and reading Heero was hard in the best of times. Sefic, she had looked around the square, eyes opening wide at the carnage, then she had casually shrugged her shoulders and delicately picked her way across the square the way they had come, taking Duo's kitten out of the Hummer as she passed it. Heero had followed her, and soon they had acquired a new vehicle and went to prepare for the next day. Sefic had disappeared not long after, reappearing as they were leaving for the airfield in a new set of cloths. 

    He watched as she absently glanced out the window, and shuddered, quickly adverting her eyes. Without even realizing it, he was rising from his seat. Trowa glanced at him, noticing where his attention was focused, and turned back to his observation of the desert. 

* * * * * 

    "Are you enjoying the flight?" 

    Sefic quickly looked up, surprise and slight unease mirrored in her eyes. A second later she smiled at the blond Arabian. "Quatre, hello." The young man sat next to her, taking her smile as an invitation. "Sort of," she shrugged lightly. "I have never flown before, it is a bit unsettling." 

    Quatre's eyes widened. She had never flown before? In this day and age? "But I see you are holding up just fine." 

    "As long as I don't look out the window." Sefic shook her head wryly. "I don't believe that people were meant to fly, if they were, they would have been born with wings." Her lips twitched self-mockingly. "And I certainly wasn't." 

    "What about Hee-chan?" Quatre asked, reaching over and rubbing his hand over the supple form. The kitten cracked open an eye, saw who it was, and began purring. 

    Sefic gave a low laugh. "Oh, she doesn't care one wit. As long as she has eaten and is comfortable, she is just fine." 

    "Yes," Quatre replied, watching the cat. She seemed the only one not bothered by recent events. 

    "You are worried about Duo," Sefic said suddenly, looking straight into Quatre's eyes, "aren't you?" Quatre nodded, of course he was worried, and who wouldn't be in this situation? Sefic sighed, breaking eye contact and looked back down at the small cat in her lap. "So am I. This has become quite the mess," she muttered under her breath. Quatre gave her an enquiring look, which she missed, lost in her own thoughts. "I can't believe that so many different things could go wrong. . . and ~_he_~ is involved. . . after all these years. . . I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to this in the first place. . ." 

    "Ummm. . . is there something the matter?" Quatre finally broke in, totally confused. What was she talking about? Sefic looked up quickly, and Quatre was surprised to see a pink flush bloom in her cheeks. 

    "NO! Nothing is the matter, nothing at all. I was just thinking out loud." The blush grew darker, and Quatre watched as Sefic quickly cast around to change the subject, his brow arched in interest as she began to babble, her British accent nearly non-existent in her desire to keep Quatre from asking questions about her unwitting rambling. "So, I didn't ask earlier, but have you gentlemen come up with a plan of action once we reach Hamunaptra? Going in and finding the book guns blazing is rather skeletal in the way of plans, don't you think so? And so very obvious, well, at least to my thinking. We don't want Imhotep to know we are there until after we get the book. . ." 

    Quatre just let Sefic talk in total amazement. She hadn't paused to take a breath since she started talking, and she was actually babbling. Besides Duo, he didn't know anyone who did that when they were nervous, and he ~_knew_~ at the moment she was highly nervous. What had she been muttering that having him overhear bothered her so much? And what had happened to her accent? Quatre took a deep breath; he might as well ask some questions while they had the time. And he no more wanted to listen to her babble than he did Duo. "So, I am curious. How did you come to be Dr. Collins assistant? Pardon me for saying so, but you do seem a bit young for such a position. 

    Sefic blushed again, but at least she stopped babbling. "Well, I am a student of Egyptology at Amun University in Memphis. I am here for the summer term to work on my thesis, and Dr. Collins took me on as a junior assistant." 

    "On your thesis?" Quatre asked, leaning back in his chair but still looking at her. "What is it about?" 

    She gave him a smile markedly lacking in humor. "Actually, it is about the interaction of the ancient gods and their subjects; and how their priests interacted between the two. The priests were the true power of Egypt, you know." 

    Quatre arched an eyebrow. "Actually, no, I did not. What of the pharaoh? He was reputed to be the Son of Ra." 

    Sefic nodded. "In many texts yes, but the priests were the actual mouths of the gods, and had much power, even the Pharaoh dared not cross them." 

    "What about Imhotep?" Quatre and Sefic both turned. Heero had relocated to the row behind them and had been listening in on their conversation. 

    "Imhotep murdered the Pharaoh, indeed a punishable crime, but he defied the gods will when he went about resurrecting Anck-su-namun." She gave Quatre and Heero a steady look. "The ancient gods are powerful, and not very forgiving. Imhotep forgot that; and that was his biggest mistake." 

    "No," Heero said coldly as he stood, "his biggest mistake was going against us." 

    Sefic regarded him, studying his statement for a long, silent moment, then nodded. "Yes, for when all is considered, regardless of the powers he now holds, Imhotep is just human. The gods no longer look favorably on him, and he has no true understanding of what he is against." Sefic turned from the two Gundam pilots, both who were looking at her with blank looks as they tried to understand what she was talking about. Her eyes reflecting gold in the window, Sefic stared out at the expanse of sand below, her entire being signifying that the conversation was over. 

* * * * * 

    Duo was going to be sick, there was no question about it. The pilot training that Professor G had subjected him to and the time flying Deathsythe had no way prepared him for being tossed around like a plastic sack in a whirlwind for hours on end. Right when he decided that his poor body had enough, the wind slackened, tossing him hard onto the hot sand. At least his fall had been partially broken by the thin frame of Imhotep's pathetic servant, Benni. 

    "Get off. . . can't breath. . ." the Hungarian wheezed. Duo took his time moving, waiting until his stomach was somewhat settled before propping himself up. Slowly he climbed to his feet, being sure to gouge an elbow hard into Benni's stomach as he did so. He smirked nastily to himself as Benni gagged, rolling over in the sand and messily emptied his stomach. 

    "Serves you right, ya little bastard," Duo grumbled, dusting off his cloths and grimacing as he felt his braid. He gave it a quick shake, and nearly cringed as he watched sand fall to the desert floor. It was going to take ~hours~ to wash out all the sand. Duo's skin crawled and he felt and immediate need to bathe right then. Several feet away, moaning slowly as though he was in great pain, Benni crawled to his feet, muttering curses in various languages under his breath. Duo arched an eyebrow at him. The Hungarian, while not much of anything else, was at least a proficient curser. Some of the oaths he used were new to Duo, and he made a quick mental note of them. Good curses were hard to come by. Still listening, Duo spared some attention and looked around, his eyes locking on a mass of swirling sand some twenty feet from him and Benni. Benni's eyes were also locked on the whirlwind and his whispered curses faded as the whirlwind shrunk, becoming smaller and more compact. As Benni began to pray in several languages (Duo silently joining in, it couldn't hurt any) the mass of sand transformed, changed. Pale sand taking on color, mineral into flesh, and Imhotep stood before them. Proud, whole, dressed in a white loincloth and a flowing sleeveless black robe of the finest linen. 

    "Shit!" Duo spat, quickly getting his bearings. They were back at that hellhole. Hamanaptra. _Well, hell. . ._ Duo quickly thought, his eyes flicking from the distant city to the mummy to his flunky. Then at the not so distant cliffs. _If I get lucky, maybe I can make a break for it, get to Deathscythe before mummy man can do anything. A few well placed, ~large~ detonators and the fucking City of the Dead is toast._ It was a good idea, and considering what would be happening to him in his near future, he didn't have much to loose. What could Imhotep do to him after all? Kill him? Duo was just getting ready to make a break for it, Imhotep was looking at the city and Benni still had that green tinge under his skin signaling that if he so much as moved, he would retching his guts out again. _Now would be a good time. . ._

    The soft roar of a jet engine broke through Duo's thoughts and he looked up into the sky at the dart of silver making its way to the ruined city. He smiled smugly, trained eyes quickly noting that the approaching jet was an OZ jet, one that he had been on a couple days ago in fact. Well, whaddya know, they were coming for him. 

    Benni also recognized the jet, "OZ," he muttered under his breath. He was clutching several of the religious icons that hung from around his neck. Imhotep was one thing (and a bad thing at that) but two of those people on that jet were fiends from hell. He knew his odds were better with his undead lord than with the teens on that jet. 

    Imhotep was possibly taking the presence of the jet even worse than his sniveling servant was. He gave the plane an evil scowl, one that had it been delivered by a Gundam pilot would have sent any OZ or Federation soldier to praying for his life and soul. He stood facing the rapidly approaching aircraft, arms raised high to the sky, and called out something, what Duo and Benni didn't know, and caused the desert to come alive, a massive tsunami of sand reaching for the silver jet. 

    "Oh SHIT!" Duo spat. 

    In the jet, the urgency of the situation was quickly apparent to all, as it was hard not to note when the desert rose up in a massive wave intent on submerging you. 

    "Allah protect us!" Quatre fervently prayed. Fighting OZ was one thing; nature herself was quite the other. He quickly bucked his seat belt and stared out Trowa's window, straining to see. Heero quickly went to the front of the jet, joining Wufei and Treize in the cockpit. He noted Sefic on his way up; she was sitting with the kitten clutched tightly to her chest and was whispering under her breath. The only reason he did not disregard her and her whisperings -as he usually would have done- was because it sounded as though her whispered words were in ancient Egyptian. He gave her a suspicious look as he passed her. 

    In the cockpit tension was running high. Wufei had taken control of the plane from Treize, who was watching Wufei between quick looks at the instrument panel and out the window. 

    "We must land the jet," Wufei told Heero levelly, all his concentration on keeping the plane on course. The strong tail winds were buffeting the plane severely; and they would only get worse. "This jet was not made to maneuver or handle such extreme winds. The sandstorm will tear it apart if we stay aloft." 

    "Nnng," Heero quickly took a seat, buckling himself down. Wufei, with a quick glance out the window, saw that time had run out for them. He grabbed the throttle firmly with both hands and held the jet as steady as he could as the sand engulfed them. 

* * * * * 


End file.
